Hockey PSA: WEAR A FULL FACESHIELD

Here’s a little public service announcement for all of you that play hockey or know someone who plays hockey.

Lecavalier could have used a half shield.

Last summer, June 14^th 2011 to be exact, I was stretching for an inline hockey game at the Bladerunners in Harmarville.  As I was stretching, one of my teammates asked me how I felt about wearing a half shield.  I told him it was a great idea and he should go for it.  I had worn a half shield  and a mouth guard for quite a few years and loved it since it still protected my face while allowing me to breathe easily.  I could also see a puck down at my feet without a problem, so it was helpful.  As a defenseman (who prides himself on shot blocking), I had taken my share of high sticks to the visor or pucks glancing off my helmet, but the half shield caught everything….until June 14^th.

With less than 10 seconds to go in the 2^nd period, an opposing forward was bearing down on me into the zone and I was in poke check range.  He pulled back to shoot; I went for the poke check.  He got the shot off; I deflected it with my poke check.  I knew what was happening and tried to turn my head, but it was too late - I deflected it right into my face.

As I dropped to my knees, well aware that my mouth was bleeding significantly, I had no clue what damage was done.  The refs wanted me to get off of the floor ASAP to minimize the blood and I quickly noticed something as I got up.  A tooth, a very long tooth, was laying on the ground where it didn’t belong.  As I skated off, I yelled for a teammate to pick up my tooth and bring it along as everyone tried to figure out what to do with me.

Upon examination, one of my bottom front teeth had been knocked out completely, broken straight off of my jaw (thus looking absurdly long).  I still had my mouthguard on though (which only covered the top half).  As I took my mouthguard off, we realized there was more damage as half of one of my front top teeth came out with it, along with a small sheath from my other front top tooth.

As I was in full panic mode about what to do with my teeth (attorneys missing teeth probably don’t get many clients), we all tried to remember what we should do with the ones that were broken/had come out.  What were all those old commercials from when we were little….oh, milk!  There was no milk at Bladerunners though.  My friend who had grabbed the tooth then proceeded to skate out the door, through a couple parking lots, and through Target where he grabbed milk.  I can only imagine how baffled the workers were to see him skating frantically through the store.  In the meantime, another teammate put me on the phone with his aunt, who was a dentist.

The dentist said she would be willing to see me right away to try and save my teeth and we should get them in milk ASAP.  The game was a 10pm game, so this is all around 11pm and she was out by the airport, a 45 minute drive.  We got to her office around 11:45pm, and she fixed my top teeth (bonded the broken half to what was remaining of the one tooth, bonded the sheath back to the other tooth, and added a filling on the back to hold them together).  She then went to work on the bottom one, essentially shoving it back into place until it clicked in with my jaw and then putting a splint on the back of it so it was bonded with 2 other teeth and immobile.  No Novocain or anesthesia at all for any of this…it felt lovely, let me tell you.

Not a comfortable moment.

Her work likely saved my teeth, but there has been a lot of dental work since that day.  The following day, I met with my regular dentist and he sanded a little bit off my top and bottom teeth so they wouldn't hit much and cause more damage.  He also warned me that I was going to have to pay attention for nerve damage on my teeth.

My body did not appreciate the hour and a half that my full bottom tooth was out, so it proceeded to eat away at the root and tooth over the next few months.  I had to get a root canal on that one and get treatments every month for a while to basically shut down the cells in the area that were eating at the tooth.  Last week, I finally got that root canal completely filled with inert material as it appears the tooth is no longer in danger.  Today, over a year later, I finally had a filling placed on the back of that bottom tooth so no more work should be necessary on it.  The splint remains on the back of my front bottom teeth though since no one knows how firmly implanted that tooth is.  It will remain like that for at least another 6 months.  Meanwhile, if I look closely in a mirror, I can still see the fractured lines in my top two front teeth - about 3 or 4 horizontal lines in each.

So here’s your lesson…wear a full face shield.  No adult hockey league is worth the damage that a puck to the face can cause.  I don’t have dental insurance, so this has been a nice hit to the bank account for the past year+ as well.  On top of it, I’m never allowed to bite into apples with my front teeth again, and I’m supposed to avoid anything that will pull too hard on my front teeth (wings, thick sandwiches, etc.).

Wear a full face shield or cage.  It’s worth it.