For immediate release: August 22, 2003
For more information, contact Susan Griffith at 216-368-1004 or susan.griffith@case.edu

CLEVELAND—When Cleveland's East Technical High School football team flashes a menacing grin at their opponents on the playing field this fall, they will show some school spirit with their high-quality, state-of-the-art mouth guards in brown and yellow—the school colors.

The mouth guards, valued at approximately $100, are being provided free through the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry's new pilot mouth guard program for high school athletes.

photo by Susan Griffith Case Western Reserve University's Lance Vernon takes an impression of the teeth of Deandre Richardson, a ninth-grader from East Technical High School in Cleveland.

The 31 East Tech Scarabs were the first recipients of mouth guards in a new community service program from the Case dental school under the direction of James Lalumandier, chair of the department of community dentistry. It received support from the Cleveland Browns Foundation.

East Tech's Athletic Director Oscar Marcus said, "Excuse the pun, but the football players were so excited about coming that they were chomping at the bit" to travel to Case for impressions and a dental screening Saturday, August 16. The team arrived 30 minutes early. The players showed their appreciation at the end of Saturday's visit by giving the five volunteer dentists an impromptu round of applause.

When Thomas Coreno, a dentist from the Academy of Sports Dentistry, told the football players they were getting the same kind of mouth guard that only two Cleveland Browns (quarterbacks Tim Couch and Kelly Holcomb) have, a wave of excitement went through the crowd. The mouth guard is also the same kind that Cavalier's LeBron James had in a Sports Illustrated photo of a "King James" smile.

Coreno added that it was this high-tech and specially fitted mouth guard by Sportsguard Laboratories, Inc. of Kent that is hoped to prevent future concussions by the Browns' star quarterbacks.

"This is definitely the Rolls Royce of mouth guards," said Marcus, who added that he spends a big portion of his athletic budget on the "boil and bite" mouth guards that tend to get lost and, when found, have to be thrown away. The new mouth guards have each player's name embedded under the laminated coating for easy identification-although several players wanted their nicknames like Turbo, Smurf and Killa inscribed on them.

"Having a properly fitted mouth guard is one more layer of protection against getting tooth injuries, oral lacerations and concussions," says Lalumandier.

His vision for the future is to expand the mouth guard pilot to all Cleveland Municipal School District student athletes by providing each athlete with his or her own high-quality mouth guard.
Eventually when the program is in full operation, each school can personalize the mouth guard to carry individual school colors, logos or other identification.

During the Scarabs' visit, they also received some career and college counseling from representatives of the dental (Mike Bingham), medical (Freddie Swain) and nursing (Rob Davis) schools between visits to the dental chair for impressions and a dental screening and receiving their dental packs, which included spin tooth brushes, toothpaste and more and a dental school pin and decal.

–Case–

 

Legal Information | © 2003 Case Western Reserve University | Contact the Department