It can be easy to get flippant about our teeth and because of the working hard and playing hard aspect of the city of Leeds, we can often forget to protect one of our most valuable assets- our teeth.

When we finish a hard week’s toil, there is no better way to let off steam than playing sports, often contact sports, and this is where our teeth, gums, jaw and neck are at their most vulnerable.

It is a good idea then to protect ourselves with a mouth-guard, which are easy to buy and come in three basic forms.

The first type of mouthguard is one size fits all and can be bought in the shops, the second is one that you take home, warm up in water and then mould to your teeth and the final one is bespoke, made especially to fit you.

A gum-shield is to able to absorb any impact and damage to the teeth and gums, and ease the stresses going through the jaw, into the head and down into the neck.

The city life can also cause unconscious stress and without knowing it we could well be grinding our teeth during the day and whilst we sleep. This is important to counteract, because the damage done over time can be just as nasty as playing sports without protection. Now, although the final solution may take therapy and anger/stress management, the immediate damage to the teeth can be stopped by asking your dentist to make you up a gum-shield to help with the grinding.