The effects of different sport mouth guards on respiration rate and tidal volume at sub-maximal exercise level

The problem directing this study was to determine differences between self-adapting sport mouthguards on respiratory rate and tidal volume during sub-maximal steady state exercise. The study was a within-subjects, repeated measures design. Fifteen male endurance trained subjects performed six sets of a 600 kpm workload for 10 min on a Monark cycle ergometer with five different mouthguard types (single sided, double sided, brain pad, gel or lip & mouth). Variables were analyzed by the ORCA metabolic system. The initial trial was a control trial with no mouthguard. The following five trials had five different mouthguard types used in a randomized order. The independent variable, mouthguard type, had five levels. Dependent variables were respiration rate and tidal volume. No differences in respiration rate or tidal volume during sub-maximal steady state exercise were found suggesting that mouthguards under certain situations will have no physiological limitations.