LAKEPORT >> It’s always good to have a dentist on your side.
And the Clear Lake High School varsity football team has that thanks to Heidi Sun, D.D.S., of Lakeport.
Sun Dental, located at 800 S. Main St., is donating custom mouth guards to members of Clear Lake High School’s varsity football team this season. She’s done fittings for 23 mouth guards so far and could do as many as 25 before the Cardinals hit the field on Monday for the first official day of practice for the upcoming season.
“I wanted to do something for the community I serve, to give back to the community and I wanted it to be tooth related,” Sun said Wednesday while taking an impression of the upper jaw of Dominick Mendez, an incoming sophomore at Clear Lake. That impression will be used to later pour a mold for Mendez’s mouth guard. The laminated mouth guard will be black, feature the Cardinals’ logo up front as well as have the player’s name on the side.
Each mouth guard would cost the average Joe off the street around $300 and not all dental insurances would cover that, according to Sun.
“You know insurances,” Sun said.
Thanks to Sun Dental, Clear Lake players won’t pay a dime.
Compared to mouth pieces sold over the counter, Sun’s custom mouth guards are more comfortable and protect the teeth much better, according to studies.
“If they fit better, the players are more likely to keep them in their mouths,” Sun said. “I want them to keep their smiles.”
The mouth guards are 6 millimeters thick, according to Sun.
In practice for 11 years in Lakeport, Sun said she “bounced a few ideas around” about what to contribute to her community before reading about a dentist in Arizona who does the same thing for football players in his area.
“It sounded like a good idea,” Sun said.
While her practice is located in Lakeport, Sun also serves many residents from nearby Kelseyville and she hasn’t forgotten about the Knights. Before the 2015-16 wrestling season gets underway, Sun will make custom mouth guards free of charge for Kelseyville High’s wrestlers.
Sun Dental is not only absorbing the cost of making the mouth guards, but the office staff has been busy finding time on the practice’s patient appointment calendar for Clear Lake players to visit the office for fittings, much like Mendez did on Wednesday. The upper jaw impressions are perfectly painless — unlike a jarring hit from a middle linebacker — and take from 10-15 minutes, according to Sun.
The mouth guards are durable and designed to last an entire season, according to Sun, who said she is rooting for Clear Lake to have a successful 2015 campaign. Whatever happens, the Cardinal players should retain their winning smiles.