Bleacher Report - Articles by Mahercor .com

NFL Congressional Testimony to Include Published Mouth Guard Data

Mahercor .com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:06:14 -0500

NFL%20Can%20Help%20Prevent%20Concussions%20Right%20Now&src=sp" name="fb_share"> Paula Duffy

Examiner

More than a year ago I wrote a piece about a simple mouth guard which prevented concussions when worn by athletes. I asked why the NFL wasn't all over it, testing it, buying it, and making it part of their equipment.

The mouth guard was developed and is sold by a dentist named Gerald Maher who for many years has been the dentist for the New England Patriots. As Patriots players got the hang of the device they raved about it, (testimonials on Maher's company's website ) especially players who had already suffered heard trauma.

As those Patriots players like Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel moved about the league they brought their mouth guards with them and members of their new teams were introduced to the device. But this was mere anecdotal evidence and the NFL said it needed peer reviewed studies, in which it never seemed to be interested enough to put into motion.

The Maher mouth guard doesn't prevent all concussions. It works specifically with the lower jaw but its success rate, until recently all anecdotal, is eyebrow raising if not astounding.

And then a few weeks ago, a study was published on Dr. Maher's device. Its study subjects were high school age football players, and according to a statement filed with the House Judiciary Committee by Maher's company, Mahercor Laboratories, LLC, it validates the company's methods of examining a player's jaw and fitting a device to help prevent concussion from direct blows.

Two weeks ago, that same committee, chaired by Representative John Conyers, (D-MI) heard testimony from NFL executives, former players, wives of former players, and medical professionals. The topic was what the league will do with recent study results that found its retired players are 19 times more likely than the average person who never played football to be diagnosed with a memory disorder.

The league now has data it can't ignore any longer. But since the study didn't prove a direct causal link between concussions on the field of play and the condition of the brains of ex-NFL players, it doesn't want to admit anything and says it needs to study the problem in more detail.

In the meantime, concussions occur weekly on every team, some more newsworthy than others.

All the Judiciary Committee did was to give the league its chance to insist that it was working on the problem therefore government intervention isn't necessary.

Some conservative members of the committee used that time to talk about their disdain for poking Congress' nose into a private workplace, even if worker safety is a factor. Funny how OSHA doesn't seem to apply to football players.

Mahercor has an advocate in Senator John Kerry (D MA) as well as endorsements from the ADA, the current president of the AFL-CIO, and a board member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It has the study results published in the The Academy of Sports Dentistry's Referring Journal, the Journal of Dental Traumatology,

I have no relationship with Mahercor and write as a journalist and observer. In the year since I began following this story, the concussion problems for the NFL have not only continued, but data about brain damage to former players as young as their mid-thirties is very disturbing.

I think it's time to take some relief where the league can find it right now. As I said, the Mahercor mouth guard isn't a cure for all head trauma. But it's a great start and it seems odd that the league doesn't use its two-minute drill to get some relief where it exists right now.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/42133/mouthguards_key_to_avoiding_becoming_a_drooling_wreck

Gregg Easterbrook today

Why won't the NFL set a positive example and require advanced helmets? And the league's announcement says nothing about double-sided mouthguards, the fastest, cheapest step against concussions. New England Patriots players wear double-sided mouthguards. If the NFL required them for all players, the NCAA and most high schools would soon follow.

Oct 1/09 research publication

http://www.mahercorlabs.com/pdf/Dental_Traumatology%20Publication.pdf

www.mahercor.com

NFL Concussion: Bring Your Mouth Guard

Mahercor .com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:36:03 -0400

Photo: Dr. Gerald Maher

Gerald J. Maher, DMD, has served as the New England Patriots team dentist since 1979, a position he got after working with boxer Marvin Hagler.

With the help of research from Dr. Jack Stenger at the University of Notre Dame, his company Mahercor Laboratories LLC developed The Maher Mouth Guard, a mechanism that is said to aid in the prevention of concussions for all athletes playing in contact sports.

The company has been working with the National Hockey League, a sport in which concussions have become all too common, and this type of oral appliance also can benefit soldiers. He recently spoke to a group of Pop Warner players and parents, and stressed the importance of avoiding the OTC mouth guards.

“Because the models off the shelf fit so poorly, the players don’t wear them or they chew on them and distort them,” said Dr. Maher, whose company works with the Appliance Therapy Group in manufacturing the custom mouth guards. “TMJ is my area of expertise and we have designed a mouth guard to cut down the incidence of concussions.”

Mark Picot, Executive Vice President of Mahercor Laboratories, LLC, describes the Maher Mouth Guard as more of a “medical device” than a mouth guard, noting that other versions available do not address the creation of a more stable relationship between the jaw and skull at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which better enables athletes to dissipate the force that comes from a hard blow to the chin area.

He adds that a recent peer-reviewed publication in Dental Traumatology should help teams and athletes become more aware of the link between violent blows to the jaw area and concussions, and how a TMJ device such as the Maher Mouth Guard can place teeth in a better position to withstand such violent blows.

Dental Device Helps Reduce Concussion Risk for NFL Athletes

Mahercor .com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:39:34 -0400

Dental device helps reduce concussion risk for athletes
By MARK KRAM
Philadelphia Daily News

kramm@phillynews.com

TO CLEAR UP any confusion that has surrounded the dental appliance he has
developed, Dr. Gerald Maher stresses that it is only useful in preventing
concussions up to a point. When a player takes a solid hit to the head, or
experiences a jolt to the neck that produces a whiplash effect, he says
there is "nothing" that his device would be able to do to avert head trauma.
Chances are that player would end up with a concussion.

But it's the player who takes a blow to the jaw that "The Maher Mouth Guard"
could conceivably help. By creating a more stable relationship between with
the jaw and skull at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the appliance better
enables players to dissipate the force that originates from a violent blow
to the chin area.

Without that shock absorber in place, a concussion and/or
other neurological damage can occur when the jaw slams into the skull.

"This is not a panacea," says Maher, the team dentist for the New England
Patriots. "What it is, is a TMJ device that places the teeth in better
position to withstand a blow. That is what it does. And it has prevented
some concussions."

Concussions have been an increasing concern in sports, chiefly in the NFL
and NHL. Long range, they can been linked to the onset of chronic traumatic
encephalopathy (CTE), a brain abnormality that leaves some former players
battling memory impairment, emotional instability, erratic behavior and
issues with impulse control.

CTE has also been discovered in the autopsies
of former NFL players Tom McHale and John Grimsley, both of whom died
prematurely in their 40s last year—McHale of a drug overdose; and Grimsley
of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.

While the NFL has formed a
committee to study the effects of concussions, it has not yet endorsed "The
Maher Mouth Guard" for leaguewide use. Maher has had better luck with the
NHL, which he says has been "actively pursuing" a dialogue with him.

With the publication of a peer-reviewed paper that was released recently in
the journal Dental Traumatology, Maher says there is now scholarly support
for the anecdotal evidence he has accumulated since he developed the
appliance back in the 1970s.

Former boxing champion Marvin Hagler was an
early success story for Maher, who has since used it with equal success in
his work with the Patriots.

Former players such as John Hannah and Lawyer
Milloy both became advocates of it. So did Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs,
both of whom played for the Patriots before signing with the Eagles.

Samuel is quoted on the Mahercor Laboratories Web site as saying that he has
not had a concussion since he began wearing The Maher Mouth Guard for more
than 3 years.

Hobbs says he had not had a history of concussion but believes it prevented
him from having any. "Well, I have been hit before where I know that if I
did not have it in, I know would have gotten one," says Hobbs. "Plus, it is
not as bulky as some of the other appliances I have used, which allows me to
breathe and communicate easier. It works."

Co-authored by Maher, Dave Singh, the director of continuing education for
the SMILE Foundation, and Ray R. Padilla, lecturer at the UCLA School of
Dentistry, the paper that appeared in Dental Traumatology focused on a
3-year study of high school athletes with a history of concussion.

According
to Maher, the high school players who participated in the study had to
continue playing in college or beyond.

"We ended up with 31 players in the study who continued to play their sport
in college," says Maher. "What we found was that between them they had
approximatley 53 concussions before wearing the appliances. And they only
had three between them after they began wearing the appliance."

Maher adds that high school athletes are especially prone to concussions.
"In fact, high school athletes are more susceptible to concussions than NFL
players," says Maher. "When you are young and you are still developing, your
parts are still not lined up properly—especially your teeth or your neck.
You are still growing and chances are you have not yet had your final growth
spurt. Some [young people] have. But I would say over 50 percent of them
have not, which is to say that the head, the jaw and the cervical are not
yet perfectly aligned."

Maher says he plans to submit his paper to the NFL for review. He says that
even if the appliance can lead to some decrease in concussion, it would be
worthy, given the problems some NFL players have had with cognitive function
in their later years.

Says Maher: "Football players get beat up. And some of
them become mentally impaired. Hopefully, something like this can help."

The NHL has been far more receptive to Maher, who has consulted with the
Washington Capitals, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild and others (but not the
Flyers). According to Maher, the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears were
fitted with the appliance last year and have experienced excellent results.

"They had had 11 concussions before they used the appliance," Maher says of
the Washington affiliate. "Afterward, they did not have a single
concussion."

Maher adds that he expects it to be widely used in the AHL this year.

"I am interested in prevention," says Maher. "I would like to intercept the
concussion before it happens. And in cases where the jaw or chin is
involved, we have proven we can do that."

And he says the players have been in large part receptive.

"They seem to love it," he says. "Not every single one of them, but the vast
majority of them.

www.mahercor.com

Link to 08/09 Journal of Dental Traumatology study

http://www.mahercorlabs.com/pdf/Dental_Traumatology%20Publication.pdf

NHL's Comp Provider Being Proactive, Where Does the NFLPA Stand on This?

Mahercor .com — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:11:31 -0400

NHL Worker's Comp Recognizing Concussion Measure, What About the NFL ?

National Hockey League team dentists

around the league are learning of the benefits in becoming certified to make the Maher Mouth Guard. This evaluation protocol has helped players of all levels reduce the chances of

concussion from blows to the jaw. N.E. Patriot and Washington Capitals players have benefited from a preseason, prior to play evaluation protocol. In fact, one of the NHL's major worker's compensation holder, is providing a benefit to implement this procedure in an effort to reduce concussion and iability to its compensation payout's due to concussion. As a return to play initiative, it should be considered for a mandate.

Many of these Washington

Capitals players had concussion historys, once fitted with the Maher Mouth

Guard, results this year were astounding, reducing the cost of concussion to the system.

Paula Duffy, National Sports Examiner for

Examiner.com and regular contributor to The

Huffington Post wrote an article (“If a Simple

Mouth Guard Can Prevent Concussions, Why

Isn’t the NFL All Over It?”) that has ignited

interest in and directed attention towards ways

to reduce or prevent the alarming number of

sports-related concussions, especially in the

National Football League. NFLPA executives should take notice of this precedent set in the NHL.

Duffy’s column in the Examiner.com

expressed concern for

St. Louis Rams quarterback Trent Green and

his return to the field after suffering two

concussions in one calendar year, one

especially severe. These types of injuries rob the compensation fund and raise premiums, specifically when they come in large numbers and leave players out for long periods.

New England Patriots team dentist Dr.

Gerald Maher, of Mahercor Laboratories

(recently featured in ESPN articles), has

developed the Maher Mouth Guard. This

protective device aids in the prevention of

concussions for all athletes participating in

contact sports, from professionals to youth

players.

Dr. Maher said, in a 2007 Boston Globe

article, that the current NFL-approved helmet

chin strap directly contributes to concussions

that arise from a blow to the jaw.

It positions the jawbone tightly against the

skull, resulting in joint cartilage derangement

and increases the likelihood of traumatizing

the nervous system and the bone striking the

temporal lobe of the brain, increasing the

symptoms of dizziness, the sensation of

seeing stars and headaches commonly known

as a “ding.”

The Maher Mouth Guard specifically

helps reduce the chances of suffering from a

concussion from a blow to the jaw – helmet

improvement focuses only on cerebral

concussion or “blows to the crown.” Patriot players who wear it, have a documented history of less lost time due to this injury.

The construction of the articulated

retainer-like Maher mouth guard, with the

prescribed thickness and temporomandibular

joint (TMJ) alignment was developed with

world champion boxers to correct “Glass

Jaw” syndrome found to be temporal

mandible disorder or TMD.

This individually-fitted patent-pending

mouth guard, as well as wearing properly

fitted protective head gear and chin straps,

allows for the utmost protection from

dangerous head trauma. In fact, most pro

players who have had a history of recurrent

concussions have halted any future events,

even while wearing old-style non-concussion

specific-designed helmets.

Non-corrective common custom-made or

boil-and-bite mouth guards reduce

neuropsychological deficits but do nothing to

identify and correct disharmony in the jaw

joint. They only “lock” the jaw into a

susceptible negative position.

Duffy’s articles in the Examiner.com and

Huffington Post center on the questions

surrounding the tentative interest by the NFL

to study Dr. Maher’s product, which is already

successfully used by the New England

Patriots, as shown in an online ESPN article. Maybe they should take a closer look at their books and this mouth guard, when considering future mandate in the prevention of concussion

Numerous high school and college

athletes, individual NFL players and a number

of boxing, hockey and lacrosse professionals

have been relieved of recurrent concussion

due to the Maher Mouth Guard.

Recent exposure and articles have led the

U.S.military to contact Mahercor officials

about its use in protecting soldiers exposed to

improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.

Many experts in TMJ believe the chin strap

designs may be the link. A screening

procedure developed by Mahercor

laboratories is another tool in determining

susceptibility to mild traumatic brain injury

(MTBI). Members of a platoon of soldiers is now wearing this innovation in Iraq, where dollars and cent do not matter, it's a matter of life and death.

The government is now reviewing the

evidence and considering action

implementing such a program, which would

be cost-effective and would help protect

soldiers on patrols or when the unexpected

force of an IED blast occurs. One of President Obama's initiatives is to reduce brain injury, like the NFL, this device is already being used. Officials only need to take a closer look at the work Mahercor Laboratories officials are doing to help.

Mahercor Laboratories product line includes an accredited DVD home study,

a required prerequisite for making the Maher

mouth guard by licensed dentists. Many NHL/NHL/NBA team dentists are already making this articulated mouth guard.

There are three levels of the Maher Mouth

Guard, all for different uses, football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, MMA ect, of which are described in detail on

the Mahercor Laboratories web site.

NHL Dentists Becoming Certified For NFL Concussion Device

Mahercor .com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:32:30 -0500

National Hockey League team dentists

are learning of the benefits

of the Maher Mouth Guard, which has helped

National Football League players, especially those with the New

England Patriots, avoid concussions.

Chris Bourque of the Washington

Capitals, among others, was fitted for the Maher Mouth

Guard this year.

Paula Duffy, National Sports Examiner for

Examiner.com and regular contributor to The

Huffington Post, wrote an article ("If a Simple

Mouth Guard Can Prevent Concussions, Why

Isn't the NFL All Over It?") that has ignited

interest in and directed attention toward ways

to reduce or prevent the alarming number of

sports-related concussions, especially in the

National Football League.

Duffy's column in the Examiner.com

(www.Examiner.com) expressed concern for

St. Louis Rams quarterback Trent Green and

his return to the field after suffering two

concussions in one calendar year, one

especially severe.

New England Patriots team dentist Dr.

Gerald Maher of Mahercor Laboratories

(recently featured in ESPN articles) has

developed the Maher Mouth Guard. This

protective device aids in the prevention of

concussions for all athletes participating in

contact sports from professionals to youth

players.

Dr. Maher said in a 2007 Boston Globe

article that the current NFL-approved helmet

chin strap directly contributes to concussions

that arise from a blow to the jaw.

It positions the jawbone tightly against the

skull, resulting in joint cartilage derangement,

and increases the likelihood of traumatizing

the nervous system and the bone striking the

temporal lobe of the brain, increasing the

symptoms of dizziness, the sensation of

seeing stars and headaches commonly known

as a "ding."

The Maher Mouth Guard specifically

helps reduce the chances of suffering from a

concussion from a blow to the jaw-helmet

improvement focuses only on cerebral

concussion or "blows to the crown."

The construction of the articulated

retainer-like Maher mouth guard, with the

prescribed thickness and temporomandibular

joint (TMJ) alignment, was developed with

world champion boxers to correct "Glass

Jaw" syndrome found to be temporal

mandible disorder or TMD.

( h t t p : / / w w w. we b m d . c o m / a - t o - z -

guides/temporomandibular-disorders).

This individually-fitted patent-pending

mouth guard, in addition to wearing properly

fitted protective head gear and chin straps,

allows for the utmost protection from

dangerous head trauma. In fact, most pro

players who have had a history of concussions have halted any future events,

even while wearing old-style non-concussion

specific-designed helmets.

Non-corrective common custom-made, or

boil-and-bite, mouth guards reduce

neuropsychological deficits but do nothing to

identify and correct disharmony in the jaw

joint. They only "lock" the jaw into a

susceptible negative position.

Duffy's articles in the Examiner.com and

Huffington Post center on the questions

surrounding the tentative interest by the NFL

to study Dr. Maher's product, which is already

successfully used by the New England

Patriots, as shown in an online ESPN article

(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=

2314899 ).

Numerous high school and college

athletes, individual NFL players and a number

of boxing, hockey, and lacrosse professionals

have been relieved of recurrent concussion

due to the Maher Mouth Guard.

Recent exposure and articles have led the

U.S.military to contact Mahercor officials

about its use in protecting soldiers exposed to

improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.

Many experts in TMJ believe the chin strap

designs may be the link. A screening

procedure developed by Mahercor laboratories is another tool in determining

susceptibility to mild traumatic brain injury

(MTBI).

The government is now reviewing the

evidence and considering action

implementing such a program, which would

be cost-effective and would help protect

soldiers on patrols or when the unexpected

force of an IED blast occurs.

Mahercor Laboratories product line

(http://www.mahercorlabs.com/mouthguard.h

tm) includes an accredited DVD home study,

a required prerequisite for making the Maher

mouth guard by licensed dentists.

There are three levels of the Maher Mouth

Guard, all of which are described in detail on

the Mahercor Laboratories Web site

(www.mahercorlabs.com).

Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger Should Know Better

Mahercor .com — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:02:07 -0500

NFL's Ben Roethlisberger and others should be asking, "Why?"

Head injuries, such as the concussion sustained Sunday by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, are a scary reminder of the human body's limitations for millionaire professional athletes.

"Knock on wood, just one bad one," Cooke said Monday of his concussion history. "I got caught off guard with an elbow to the chin, hit my face on the ice when I fell and I was out.

"It's something as an athlete you don't really think of, but if you sit back and watch another sport or watch your sport after you are done playing, you think, 'Holy cow! I'm surprised how (violent) that looks.'"

Cooke attended the NFL game between the Steelers and Cleveland Browns with his children. The sight of Roethlisberger strapped to a stretcher, his head and neck immobilized as a medical crew transported him to an ambulance, provided him with a reminder of thoughts he will strive to avoid when the Pittsburgh Penguins face the Boston Bruins tonight at Mellon Arena.

"I've never once thought about injuries," Cooke said. "Not until after they've happened, at least."

Concussions are on the rise in the NHL. A study by the Orange County Register prior to the 2007-'08 season determined league players missed 760 games in 2006-'07 due to concussions and related symptoms.

In Boston last week, Dr. Robert Cantu related to Bergeron that “99 percent” of NHL players would have similarly suffered a significant concussion in the manner of collision that saw the side of Bergeron’s face smack into the unforgiving shoulder pads of Dennis Seidenberg with such violent force.

Cantu’s statement was meant to assure Bergeron that his second concussion wasn’t the sign of a player that’s becoming more and more susceptible to head injuries and hockey dings.

What it really was was an affirmation that blows to the chin and jaw are related to a new origin of concussion recently identified by military research. The finding is important because many such brain injuries have been missed in the past, especially when more severe or obvious wounds demanded attention.

Military researchers report observations recognizing this phenomenon in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Diagnosing brain injury, especially mild damage, is based largely on subjective symptoms like irritability and forgetfulness. Imaging tests like CAT scans do not help, and neurological function tests are not very useful without baseline information. All methods in place today, other than helmets, do nothing to protect our youth and professionals in real time.

Hitting "up" in the NHL has become an accepted manner of hitting. Perhaps it shouldn't be. It hasn't always been that way.

Hitting in the NHL and NFL today may be analogous to boxing. Given the high incidence of retired players developing the same displayed types of dementia—frontal temporal dementia as found in boxers—one needs only to do the math.

It's well documented. Boxers with a "glass jaw" are more prone to concussion with each event. This runs in line with conventional research from UPMC, which indicates that once you have one "event" you are more prone to the next.

In the sweet science of boxing, body blows have always been used to wear down and weaken an opponent's will. That is the hockey equivalent of bodychecking.

But in boxing, when you want to deliver a knockout punch and put your opponent down and out on the canvas, you go for the headshot. And what punch is the most dangerous knockout punch?

An uppercut, that's what. Delivered at a 45 degree angle at the opponent's jaw, it seemingly comes out of nowhere because the victim often never sees it coming. Clearly, hitting "up" in the NHL is the hockey equivalent of a vicious uppercut, designed to deliver a knock-out blow.

Dr. Johnny Benjamin, director of Medical Specialty Procedures Surgery Center, Vero Beach, has worked with light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver and many other boxers.

"If you look at Peyton Manning's helmet, it comes down lower than jaw line. Part of the problem is taking a punch to chin," Benjamin said. "As we've seen with boxers, a guy who takes a punch to the chin goes down. It's the same with a football player. A key brain stem lives behind the jaw, and controls many functions of the body. So helmets should protect below the chin."

But a helmet can't, because chin-strap anchoring systems channel forces to the skull base via the mandible.

Patriots team dentist Gerald Maher said that NFL research showed 70 percent of concussions are the result of blows to the jaw. But he said not a single jaw expert was invited to the conference.

Maher has been in contact with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and had been asked to submit his research to a group out of Ottawa, Canada, called Biokinetics. Still, he feels his efforts have been stymied.

"They are working on dummies, and I am 100 percent opposed to working on dummies with this device," he said. "You need to individualize this, and you can't do that with a dummy. I think working with them will be a waste of time."

Maher has been outfitting Patriots players with his mouth guards since the early 1980s and said that 40 current members of the team wear them. Johnson wore one and has stated he has no neurofibulary tangles, known precursors to Parkinson and dementia.

This could be a marker crucial to soldiers in Iraq subject to the same type of chin strap forces on the jaw.

Depression, suicide, and concussion rates in soldiers have been the highest in the history of warfare, due in part to repeated exposure to unexpected IED blasts.

"To not have a TMJ [temporomandibular joint] expert on the panel is extremely shortsighted," said Maher. "I don't understand why they don't. It's one of the pieces that we should be looking at. We should be looking at prevention."

Omitting this widely-accepted theory in their rhetoric, which is supported by a documented history of use within the NFL, is extremely dangerous to the general public.

Part of the NFL's concussion crackdown, which includes neurological baseline testing for all players, will be to enforce the use of chin straps. Maher said that's more likely to hurt than help, as it locks the jaw in a position where the end of the jawbone can strike the temporal lobe of the brain.

"That's the worst possible physiological position they can put it in," said Maher.

The exact place where Roethlisberger broke his jaw could determine how long healing takes, said Dr. Gerald J. Maher, dentist for the New England Patriots. Jones said Roethlisberger broke his upper and lower jaw.

Maher, who also has worked with injured boxers, said broken jaws can take three to six weeks to heal. However, compromised cartilage structures within the temporal mandibular will never repair themselves.

Only a corrective procedure developed to align and correct these structures will help reduce the odds of reoccurring injury. The President of the NHL dental association, along with many other NHL, NFL, NBA and major college dentists, have signed on to this accredited certification program. It's a step in the right direction.

A poster presentation prepared by an NIH consultant was recently accepted by UPMC concussion conference officials. It outlines in detail this very procedure, yet Roethlisberger has not been fitted with the retainer-like mouth guard used by the NE Patriots for over two decades.

Big Ben should be asking why not?

NFL Concussion Expert Recognized With 2009 Journal Publication

Mahercor .com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:28:58 -0500

Academy of Sports Dentistry, NFL, NHL, NBA and NCAA Team Dentists Journal

Patriot's Dentist offers innovative mouth guard to help prevent concussive Trauma.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122505786/abstract

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) Nov. 11, 2008 — Paula Duffy, National Sports Examiner for Examiner.com and regular contributor to The Huffington Post wrote an article ("If a Simple Mouth Guard Can Prevent Concussions, Why Isn't the NFL All Over It?") that has ignited interest in and directed attention towards ways to reduce or prevent the alarming number of sports-related concussions, especially in the National Football League.

Duffy's column in the Examiner expressing concern for St. Louis Rams quarterback Trent Green and his return to the field after suffering two concussions in one calendar year, including one at the most severe level identified by medical professionals, elicited an informative phone call from Mahercor Laboratories, LLC.

Headed up by the New England Patriot's team dentist for more than two decades, Dr. Gerald Maher, Mahercor Laboratories has developed an innovative mouth guard, The Maher Mouth Guard, which aids in the prevention of concussions for all athletes participating in contact sports, from professionals to youth players.

While a concussion policy in the league has been instituted to prevent players from being forced back onto the field without regard to their health, prevention seems to be the solution in the long run, at least to me

Dr. Maher says that the current NFL-approved helmet chin strap directly contributes to concussions that arise from a blow to the jaw.

It compacts the end of the jawbone against the skull and increases the likelihood of the bone striking the temporal lobe of the brain, increasing the symptoms of dizziness, the sensation of seeing stars, and headaches commonly known as a "ding."

The Maher Mouth Guard helps reduce the chances of suffering from a concussion. The implementation of this properly-fitted mouth guard with the prescribed thickness separates the mandible (lower jaw) from the maxilla (upper jaw). This limits the chance of obtaining a concussion via a direct blow to the jaw.

This, as well as wearing properly fitted protective head gear and chin straps allows for the utmost protection from dangerous head trauma.

Duffy's articles in the Examiner.com and Huffington Post center on the questions surrounding the seemingly inexplicable lack of interest by the NFL to study and approve Dr. Maher's product, which is already successfully used by the New England Patriots, numerous high school and college athletic programs, individual NFL players, and a number of boxing, hockey, and lacrosse professionals.

A seven-year old NFL study with data that is even older (1996-2001) cites an incidence of .41 concussions per game every week during the football season. Duffy's concern is for players not aware of the anecdotal evidence about the Maher Mouth Guard waiting for the league or their union to give the nod to a product for on-field use.

Duffy believes solutions such as those offered by Mahercor Laboratories should be immediately evaluated for use by athletes at risk.

Things may in fact be starting to happen. Researchers recently presented statistical evidence of athletes treated for Temporomandibular (jaw) Disorders (TMD) prior to the fitting of the (Maher) orthotic appliance at the largest collection of concussion experts in the world, the 2008 FIFA International Conference on Concussion in Sport in Zurich Switzerland. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122505786/abstract

This may be the forum needed to fully understand the relevance and benefits of these procedures.

"While a concussion policy in the league has been instituted to prevent players from being forced back onto the field without regard to their health, prevention seems to be the solution in the long run, at least to me," stated Duffy.

Mahercor Laboratories product line includes The Maher Standard Mouth Guard (LEVEL I), an introductory maxillary stabilizing mouth guard designed for someone involved in a sport where mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) from non-direct impacts to the face and jaw are to be expected. http://www.mahercorlabs.com/mouthguard.htm

The Maher Intact Mouth Guard (LEVEL II) is designed for anyone involved in a sport where mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) from hard impacts to the face and jaws are to be expected. This mouth guard is composed of a multi-layered laminated EVA material to enhance tooth protection and a patent pending posterior occusal rim to improve condyle disk relationship to lessen the potential for concussions.

The Maher B-Protect Splint (LEVEL III) is designed to position the condyle-disc assembly into the optimum position to resist concussive forces.

Since its development, no NFL Player wearing any products in The Mahercor Laboratories product line has ever succumbed to a concussion from a blow to the jaw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6VfkCosqWw

http://www.mahercorlabs.com/articles.htm