N.Y. High School Testing Innovative Mouthguards

Time Herald-Record

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For three days this week, a group of football players at Middletown High School were at the forefront of concussion monitoring technology.

i1 Biometrics, an information and technology company based in Rowayton, Conn., has developed an impact-sensing mouth guard that helps coaches and trainers measure hits and better asses head injuries.

The technology won’t be commercially available until the end of the year, but i1 Biometrics partnered with Middletown during three days of intramural practices to gather data as they look to refine the science and math behind their algorithms and software.

“The name of the game is safety. If we as football don’t address these issues, football is going to die,” said Billy Donohue, Middletown’s head football coach. “That is really important. This is the future and everybody, I imagine, will be using this type of technology. It’s all about the safety of the kids. Anything we can do to help that out, we’re very excited to be able to pioneer this.”

These aren’t the old boil-and-bite mouth guards, the kind first required for use by high school football players in 1962.

Boiling water is still involved, but the new material, called Vistamaxx, not only gives a superior custom fit around the upper teeth, it is also much more durable than the ethylene vinyl acetate of the old mouth guards.

The front portion of the mouth guard, which protrudes between the lips, houses both an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which measure head movement in all directions.

Data is wirelessly transmitted to a receiver on the sidelines. From there, it loads into a laptop, giving athletic trainers and coaches readings on the force of the impacts.