SUAREZ AND LADON FITTED WITH OLYMPIC-GRADE MOUTHGUARDS
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Jun 2016
Canoga Park, CA:- Philippine Olympic boxing hopefuls, Charly Suarez (132 lbs) and Rogen Lagon (108.lbs) are two lucky young men. They have great support from PLDT head honcho, Mr. Manny Pangilinan and a whole bunch of Philippine boxing personalities, notably Mr. Ed Picson and Coach Pat Gaspi.
On top of that, they have an additional mentor who is not only good but smart as well, in Dodong Donaire of Las Vegas. I say, ?smart? because Donaire recognizes the importance of custom mouthguards and their functions- unlike many big names coaches who flout the value of these protective units. This ignorance lead to some of them even selling boxers that train in their gym cheap ready-made mouthguards that go for a couple of dollars in the market.
Today, Donaire drove Suarez and Ladon from Las Vegas to our offices to be fitted with custom mouthguards that are Olympic-grade. Yes, there are requirements for Olympic mouthguards. Foremost of these requirements is the ban on the use of ?red-color? mouthguards so that referees and judges will not confuse the color for blood.
Aware of the ban on the red color, we decided to make them blue mouthguards to go with their predominantly blue outfits instead of what they really deserved - the traditional four colors of the Philippine flag. But, we made sure that all the qualities of a great mouthguard went with what we made for them including the Olympic requirements.
The mouthguards will not guarantee a gold medal but it will guarantee that their dentition will be well protected for the lifetime of their new mouthguards.
One ironic thing about the weight class of Suarez is the fact that the 132 pound boxer who will represent the USA (Carlos Balderas of Sta. Maria, CA)) will also be using a custom mouthguard we fabricated. Balderas is a patient in our offices since he was 7 years old and we made every single mouthguard he had used since he started fighting at age 8 in amateurs all over California.
Suarez and Ladon were brought to our offices at 10 am for custom impressions. They then proceeded to the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood for a visit and a photo-op. At 4 pm they came back and their mouthguards were fitted.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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