For a while now, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has been referred to as ‘the gentle art’. However, if you’ve trained for a bit then you will know this simply isn’t true. In fact, in some cases it can be very hard on your body. Usually, most people moan about aches and pains involving bones and ligaments…but there is also one other part of the body that can also get damaged if you’re unlucky or uncareful.
Specifically, we’re talking about the teeth. Put simply, if you take a glancing blow to your mouth then there’s a chance you may get a tooth knocked out. Similarly, you could even hit your chin on the floor or someone’s body, resulting in chipped teeth. Sadly, this does happen and if you’ve trained for a while then you may know people with broken teeth as a result. Here is how to avoid it.
Table of Contents
Protect your teeth using a mouth guard
Usually, most people don’t train or roll using a mouth shield. Having said this, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t either. If you’re worried about damaging or breaking your teeth due to BJJ then wear one. Prices range from a few dollars to over $100. It really depends on what you’re after and the budget you’re working with.
These work by soaking up impact and stopping your teeth from taking in damage. For example, instead of your teeth shattering on each other upon impact, they would instead bite into the mouth guard. Due to its softer material, this would save your teeth from damage.
In fact, if you were to get hit in the mouth hard enough to break a tooth, then a mouth guard would probably save your teeth. This may not save your teeth entirely, but it’s better than nothing.
Rolling at a slower pace
Imagine two people rolling very quickly, both scrambling and going pretty hard. They may not be particularly dangerous, but there’s a greater chance of injury. The reason for this is that if you do things quicker, you have less time to defend against bad positions if they go wrong.
For instance, if you’re on course to butt heads but you have 1 second to move out of danger, then it’s likely you’ll be ok, as opposed to the same scenario, with merely a quarter of a second to get out the way.
In other words, it may not be the best thing for your Jiu Jitsu and it may lose you more scrambles. However, it will also preserve your body and make collisions less likely. Another bonus is that if you roll like this, you’re more likely to remember your actions which will help the learning process.
Avoid crazy people
Similarly, avoiding the resident bulldozer is another good way to protect your teeth. Every gym has that one guy with a dangerous reputation and ultimately, you can choose to avoid rolling with them. This is completely up to you and no one really cares.
If you have to roll with said person then it may be best to secure a dominant position such as mount or the back and stay there, even if it means avoiding the advancement of the position. Whilst this may be boring and isn’t a good thing to do all of the time, it will at least keep your teeth safe from harm and effectively stall the round out until you can roll with someone that won’t hurt your teeth.
This doesn’t mean ducking hard rolls or turning them into flow rolls either, but it is something you can do from time to time if wanted.
The bottom line
Having said all of this, sometimes people can just be plain unlucky. Sometimes in BJJ you can have some scary moments surrounding injury and still survive. Sometimes, the smallest, most innocuous of collisions can result in big injuries.
With this in mind, some things are inevitable. However, it should also be added that you can still control your destiny to an extent which is the main part of this article. So, if you’re worried about your teeth whilst training BJJ – then wear a mouth guard and be careful when rolling!
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