A method of direct transfer printing for personal identifications on sports mouth guards

Abstract

Mouth guards were developed to prevent sport-related oral injuries. In organized team sports, many players use similar mouth guards; therefore, a method to identify personal mouth guards is needed. Several techniques for identifying mouth guards have been described. 1 Yonehata Y. Maeda Y. Method of placing personal identification on acetate mouth guards. J Prosthet Dent. 1999; 82: 494 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar , 2 Reeson M.G. Jepson N.J. Simple procedure for mouth guard identification for school-aged children. J Prosthet Dent. 2000; 83: 688-689 PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar One method is to carve the individual's name or number on the mouth guard. 1 Yonehata Y. Maeda Y. Method of placing personal identification on acetate mouth guards. J Prosthet Dent. 1999; 82: 494 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar Another is to put a label with an individual's name between layers of mouth guard sheets. 2 Reeson M.G. Jepson N.J. Simple procedure for mouth guard identification for school-aged children. J Prosthet Dent. 2000; 83: 688-689 PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar However, the second method can only be used for mouth guards made from laminated materials and requires additional laboratory time and expense. This article describes a method of direct transfer printing for the personal identification of mouth guards. This method is simple and may be used for all types of custom-made mouth guards. The authors have observed that the transfer lasts at least 1 month.