An anti-concussion mouth guard has been designed to show the severity of a head impact. A football or soccer player or coach is thereby warned that it is not safe to return to play after the head impact.
The FITguard, can measure an impact and, with an LED display, alert coaches and players of the nature of the impact. This measurement can provide a clear warning of the danger of re-entering the game.
Evaluating an impact by asking a football player how he feels after the impact is dangerous. The player could be unaware of the extent of an impact injury, and return too early to the game. When this happens, he is exposing himself to “second impact syndrome,” which can have permanent or fatal results.
The FITGuard attaches to the teeth (molars), and measures whether an impact could produce a concussion, so that medical evaluation is needed.
While useful for older players, the FITGuard is also being put to use on younger athletes, who have a higher death rate than older athletes from concussive injuries. As reported by FoxNews.com:
A new company is looking to land a punch in the fight against concussions by providing youth athletes with technologically enhanced mouth guards.
Force Impact Technologies (FIT) has developed a mouth guard— called the FITGuard— that is outfitted with LED lights meant to alert coaches and players of a potentially traumatizing head impact.
We’re targeting youth athletes because research shows concussions and mild-trauma brain injuries are starting far earlier than people realize,” Bob Merriman, co-founder and chief operating officer of FIT, told FoxNews.com.
“Addressing them [concussions] at the high school level or earlier is important, but we want to get in there and call them out even earlier,” Merriman said.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 173,285 traumatic brain injuries— including concussions— are treated in children and adolescents from birth to 19 years every year. The CDC reports that the numbers and rates of these injuries are highest among high school athletes partaking in football and girls’ soccer.
A single concussion may have a lasting impact on the brain, resulting in long-term structural damage. A study from the New York University Langone School of Medicine found that patients who had suffered from a concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), had significant damage in certain portions of their brains a year after their injury.
The LEDs in the FITGuard are programmed to flash three different colors— green, blue or red— depending on the impact. Red indicates severe impact, while green indicates low impact. If the impact is not dangerous, the mouth guard will not flash any color.
Users can input their information, including sex, age and gender, into the device through an app also developed by the company.
To see the rest of this article, and a photo of the FITGuard, click here
Photo source: Morguefile
