Facial Protection

Tracy: Welcome to Charter Local Edition. I’m Tracy Young. 

Every year, approximately 3.5 million children incur a facial injury related to a sports activity. Joining us to talk about how you can help your children prevent any facial injuries is Dr. Armond Kotikian. He’s an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in the San Gabriel Valley. Let’s talk about this, Doctor. 

Dr. Armond: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.

Tracy: When you think about 3.5 million kids — unfortunately, kids can be kind of mean. When we have those kinds of injuries, I’m one who suffered one of those. Kids are not particularly kind to other children, are they?

Dr. Armond: True. No, not at all.

Tracy: So let’s start with — first of all, let’s start with the eyes. We only get two eyes, and that’s it. 

Dr. Armond: That’s right.

Tracy: There’s lots of things that you can replace and fix, but if you hurt your eyes, that is a lifelong something that you suffer. 

Dr. Armond: That’s right.

Tracy: I mean, look at these glasses. I’m going to go ahead and just put them on. Okay, let’s see how cool I can look with these. Okay. Why is it important that we have glasses like this? I notice they’re long. They completely cover. Why should we be wearing glasses like this?

Dr. Armond: They protect the eye in itself as far as causing an injury. It can even cause blindness, so it actually acts as a cushion. So it prevents that. It prevents any cuts that may occur to the region around the eye and also can actually prevent fractures of the bony structure in the orbit.

Tracy: Yeah, because I’m looking at what you have in here. There’s an area—it’s hard to see on camera—but there’s a compression, sort of cushion, that goes right there. And you’ve got a cushion right here.

Dr. Armond: Definitely.

Tracy: Okay. So this is really important to protect the kid’s eyes.

Dr. Armond: Definitely, especially like racquetball or any high-velocity sport, it’s highly recommended.

Tracy: Okay, okay. I recognize these. I used to grind my teeth. But that’s not what this is for.

Dr. Armond: Correct. 

Tracy: This is actually for what? It’s a mouthguard.

Dr. Armond: Mouthguard, that’s correct.

Tracy: Okay.

Dr. Armond: So mouth guards are recommended in any type of contact sports because what they do, they act as a cushion and they prevent injuries to the teeth, the lips, or even jaw fractures. But just by wearing mouth guards, studies have shown that we’ve prevented 200,000 injuries annually. If a mouth guard is not worn, you increase your chance of oral and facial injuries by 60 times.

Tracy: Oh my gosh. Right. 

Dr. Armond: Right.

Tracy: All right. I can imagine, just because this is plastic, so the cushion that you have so if you’re hit or you’re pounced or something. 

Dr. Armond: Right. 

Tracy: Okay. This lovely thing, this helmet. You know, I know sometimes these don’t really look really great on, okay? And people tend to say, “I don’t really want to wear one.” But not wearing one and thinking that you don’t look great is really not an answer to the fact that if you have a head injury —

Dr. Armond: Right …

Tracy: — what could happen to you for the rest of your life is really traumatic.

Dr. Armond: That’s correct. So the helmets in itself, especially if they cover the ears, they can prevent skull fractures, prevent any type of bleeding in the brain, a lot of times because it acts as a cushion and it’s a very hard plastic. 

Tracy: Right. 

Dr. Armond: It’s recommended in baseball, biking, skateboarding, obviously ice hockey, football, as we all know.

Tracy: Right. Right. And I’m just looking at it here. I mean, what’s great about it is how hard it is on the outside. 

Dr. Armond: Definitely.

Tracy: But the reality is on the inside, there’s all this incredible cushion that’s on the inside.

Dr. Armond: That’s right.

Tracy: Right. As a medical professional, when you see kids come in and they’ve suffered these injuries, and you think, “You could have had on glasses, or you could have been wearing a mouthpiece, or you could have had on a headset,” how sad is it? Because as a surgeon, there are people that may be coming to you and saying, you know, “Maybe I have to have all my teeth extracted. I have to have dentures put in as a kid.” 

Dr. Armond: Right. 

Tracy: You know, or something. How sad is that for you?

Dr. Armond: It is. It’s very tough. And I always try to educate them, especially when I see them in the emergency room or if they come into the clinic. So definitely.

Tracy: Right. So this is something that’s completely preventable.

Dr. Armond: Definitely.

Tracy: And I’m thinking about, I was — I don’t know. Maybe I should or shouldn’t disclose, but okay, this is under $30. I’ll just say that number. But it’s under $30. These glasses, roughly?

Dr. Armond: $13.

Tracy: $13. And a mouthpiece?

Dr. Armond: It varies. That’s a custom-made one, so it varies. It could be a few hundred dollars based on your dentist.

Tracy: Right, exactly.

Dr. Armond: But you can also get the ones from the pharmacy, which are the boil-and-bite, where you actually heat them up and bite into them, or you can buy just generic ones.

Tracy: And so they mold to your own mouth basically. 

Dr. Armond: Right. But these are the best because they’re custom-made.

Tracy: Right. And if you think about it, I know it’s a bit of an expense, but on the other hand, if it saves somebody —

Dr. Armond: It could save you thousands and —

Tracy: Thousands and thousands.

Dr. Armond: prevent any scarring. Definitely.

Tracy: So you want to tell parents what?

Dr. Armond: Make sure your kids wear the proper facial gear with any sporting, any sports that they play.

Tracy: Yeah, exactly. So they can enjoy the sports, but the bottom line is just take some safety precautions. 

Dr. Armond: Definitely. 

Tracy: And that way the kids can have a great time, get some exercise, but you can protect them.

Dr. Armond: Absolutely. 

Tracy: All right. Good to have you with us, Doctor. 

Dr. Armond: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Tracy: Thank you for watching Charter Local Edition. I’m Tracy Young.