A Novel Method for the Mechanical Testing of Sports Mouthguards
Current mouthguard test methods require improvement, as the impact energies during traditional testing do not reflect the higher energy that can be observed in actual use during sport. A new data set of ball speeds experienced during the sport of field hockey was obtained. These ball speeds have the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View Fulltext in Publisher |
| Summary: | Current mouthguard test methods require improvement, as the impact energies during traditional testing do not reflect the higher energy that can be observed in actual use during sport. A new data set of ball speeds experienced during the sport of field hockey was obtained. These ball speeds have then been used to estimate impact energies. This information was used to subsequently develop a new test method consisting of a high-speed camera and drop tower. Observations show an increase in energy experienced by the mouthguard for higher-impact energies. The work carried out showed that current testing methods for sports mouthguards use lower-energy impacts than experienced during the sport of field hockey. The new method that is proposed allows for a more realistic representation of real-world impacts. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. |
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| ISBN: | 20763417 (ISSN) |
| DOI: | 10.3390/app12073449 |