Should you practice martial arts if you wear braces?

Martial arts can and should be practiced even by putting the teeth or bite in order, but sparring should be excluded.

To put it bluntly, braces force teeth to change their position. In this process, the "attachment" of the tooth is weakened. In simple words, it loosens a little.

In the martial arts, sparring is present. And it is clear that when hitting the jaw area, even with equipment, there is a great load on the very teeth that are "weakened".

There are different types of braces, the main groups are open and hidden. If you hit in the face, a person wearing open braces, you can not only damage his teeth, but also it is guaranteed, very badly damage the oral mucosa, in the areas adjacent to the braces.

There are special boxing mouthguards for braces. They protect the mucous surface from damage and protect the teeth by fixing them.

However, this does not fully guarantee the safety of your teeth and your investment in braces.

Continuing active sparring can seriously damage the process that braces perform and, as a result, not get the desired result.

If you nevertheless decide to continue sparring, you must definitely purchase a special mouthguard (IMPORTANT! ONLY SPECIALIZED CAPA WILL FIT FOR BRACES)

You should buy it in a store, where professional sellers work to confirm to you that this is a special mouth guard. The differences are noticeable in the design and in the preparation method (mouthguards for braces, as a rule, do not undergo heat shrinkage).

Nothing contact is definitely impossible. Several times a small child accidentally hit my cheek and lip with its head when I was wearing braces. There was always a kind of dissection on the inside of the cheeks and lips. It's not hard to imagine what would happen if a heavier person struck a blow.

Of course not. As a person involved in freestyle wrestling, when they put braces on me (although this is not the most traumatic sport for the face), I can say that this is not only a chance to lose all my teeth, but any contact of the bracket with the oral cavity is guaranteed to result in cuts and bleeding.

In response to the previous speakers, I will answer as an athlete with experience:
In no case should you engage in combat sports where there is full contact. One missed blow to the jaw, where the braces are, and your teeth will fly out all at once. The picture clearly shows what the consequences can be.
Try to avoid fights too.

While the braces are in place, take up alternative sports - strength.

As an athlete I can say that initially it is better to engage in martial arts from an early age, it’s the easiest to adapt. As for the bracket system, it’s better to wait until it is removed, the sport itself plays a role here, depending on which direction I advise you to start training at home in order to prepare the body for training and be in good shape, so the risk of getting into the jaw will shrink, and there will be a slight advantage)

It's worth it anyway, it's just that there will be a problem with the kappa. When I was engaged (they put braces for me during my classes) - it was scary that I would "get it in the jaw" and that's it. It will be difficult to get to the competition and the like, since there is nowhere without a mouthguard.

Just be careful, take care of your jaw!)