Who could have thought that an unassuming mouthpiece can be a power source for athletes.  By the power of Grayskull! Sorry, the print ads for this stuff strongly remind us of Skeletor, the archrival of He-Man.

PPM, or the Pure Power Mouthguard, is now being touted as the new and legal alternative to anabolic steroids in athletic performance enhancement.

Many would probably raise their eyebrows with this claim, but wait till you here about this cutting-edge invention.

The inventor of this product, Dr. Anil Makkar, is neuromuscular dentist who says that he discovered the attributes of this product by sheer chance in 2006. He’s quick to reassure though that there are 40 years of serious science that backs up this new technology.

Here’s a more detailed account of this news from Times & Transcript:

The simple device used to protect athlete’s teeth and gums from damage in full-contact sports can apparently do much more than meets the eye — er, mouth. Or at least, one type of mouthguard can anyway.

In 2006, Makkar was treating several patients with temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ), a syndrome that results in symptoms such as headaches, vertigo and neck pain. To treat this, he developed a bite plate for his patients that set their jaws at ease, taking the pressure off muscles and joints in the head and neck.

In addition to the pain relief, they got a little more than expected.

Makkar describes a lobster fisherman who he treated for TMJ. With the new orthotic mouth device, not only did the fisherman’s headaches disappear, but he also found throwing lobster traps in the water much easier than it had been. He attributed the effect to the mouth piece.

It seems a curious side-effect of the device is that it improves one’s balance, strength, agility and endurance. After treating several patients who noted improvements of their own, Makkar began to see the possibilities.

In May 2006 the dentist began wondering if his device might yield an advantage for athletes. He worked the device into a mouthguard so it would also serve as a source of protection for athletes.

Chuck Sproule, a Nova Scotia heavyweight bodybuilding champion, jiu-jitsu instructor and personal trainer began working with Makkar on the product.

This device is particularly interesting to athletes who are engaged in the so-called contact or collision sports, such as boxing, mixed martial arts, hockey and football. This device is being promoted both as a protection gear and a performance enhancer. No wonder, we see a lot of grinning athletes in the playing field nowadays. Michael Phelps should not opt for this one though; it’d become obvious that he’s getting a boost for those gold-raking performances at Beijing. Our advice: better stick with the Speedo swimwear.

Sproule found he was able to lift more weight and do more in the gym than usual when wearing the mouthpiece. For eight months, Makkar and Sproule tested the device and gave some out to local sports teams to try.

“The reason that it works,” the dentist says, “is 90 per cent of the population out there has what we refer to as TMJ issues. And when you have those kind of issues, the facial muscles are working overtime to keep that lower jaw in a place where it doesn’t want to be.

Once you’ve found that position that relaxes those upper facial muscles, it allows you to use your upper and lower body muscles for strength, endurance, balance and range of motion.”
In short, since your head, neck and back muscles aren’t straining to keep your face, head and neck in a certain position, that extra strength and energy can be put to other uses — throwing a ball farther, skating on ice with more balance or swinging a racket a little harder.

Using computer software and machinery, a neuromuscular dentist trained by Makkar can find the position where one’s lower jaw sits so that all the muscles in the face are completely relaxed. Once that position is found, it is captured so that a device can be moulded specifically to fit that person’s jaw.

So, if you see an athlete walking in a dental clinic, he might be opting for this mouthpiece and not for any dental procedure like teeth whitening or getting porcelain veneers.

It is expected that this will be on the top list of dental procedure requests in the coming years. It was reported that there are “over 100 nationally recognized professional athletes who are taking advantage of the benefits of PPM.” The report, however, did not name the athletes.


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