This is not a prestigious list by the way, it is more of a “beware of list”, and two different companies/mouthguards have now found my ire. Perhaps I was “Pollyanna-ish” about companies continuing to claim that this particular piece of equipment can attenuate concussions or even reduce problems; it should have been fair warning with the FTC’s decision on Brain-Pad.
Any device placed in the mouth is for oral-dental protection, nothing more. Any claims otherwise are not based on any scientific evidence, because none exists to my knowledge. If you want to prevent what you see in the picture you must wear a mouthguard/device. If you want to prevent concussions, don’t participate in collision or contact sports, period.
If I told you that one company says;
“A serious blow to the head can leave you with significant physical and mental problems years after you’ve hung up your equipment. Gladiator® may prevent or reduce the severity of concussion.”
What would you say to that? But they are not the only one;
“By wearing a Guardian Mouthguard, you are helping to protect yourself against concussions!”
That will be the last time I mention those companies. I don’t like to send traffic their way, but if you do not believe me you can click on THIS LINK for Gladiator, or THIS LINK for Guardian to see what they are promoting.
This is nothing more than snake oil, both of these companies should be boycotted for providing such claims. If you are a representative of either of the companies feel free to send me the research you are using to make these outlandish statements. If you think that this is just a blog, fine, but remember that before the FTC was involved I ripped and shredded both Brain Pad and Maher for their claims as well SEE HERE or HERE or HERE or HERE
The Concussion Blog 
Mouthguards help save your teeth… they don’t do anything to “prevent concussions”
The theory is that any additional head gear would ideally absorb more of the impact so that the athlete would absorb less of it.
A mouthpiece may serve some benefit for any hits directed to the mouth/jaw in both protecting that area as well absorbing some impact.
A helmet ideally would serve a similar purpose in helping to absorb some of the impact from a hit to the head.
These 2 pieces of equipment are important for athletes in contact sports but what we have found in 100% of Concussion cases is that there is a head to neck mis-alignment that occurs which alters mental impulse as well as nerve and blood flow.
When we have corrected this problem (non-surgical), we have observed proper stability restored to the Upper Cervical Spine (Head-Neck Alignment).
This provides a logical and sensible approach in regards to properly allowing the athlete the safest return to play scenario.
Proper equipment is extremely important in protecting our children who participate in contact sports but as a parent of 4 athletes and a doctor to many more, we have found proper head-neck alignment to be the most important.