1. Home
  2. News

Smart mouthguard to be adopted by World Rugby to help spot head injuries

By
Players in a rugby game.
Patrick Case/Pexels

Rugby is a highly physical sport in which little protective gear is worn, so players feel the full force of every impact.

One device that some players do wear is a mouthguard, which protects players from mouth lacerations and tooth damage.

Recommended Videos

In a move to increase the safety of the sport, rugby union’s world governing body, World Rugby, has announced that it will start using mouthguards fitted with smart technology that’s capable of detecting high levels of acceleration and head impacts in real time.

Data from the smart mouthguards will be sent immediately to pitch-side doctors, enabling quick decisions to be made about whether a player needs to be taken off for detailed checks following a heavy impact during a game.

World Rugby’s interest in the mouthguard grew after research in ice hockey found that as well as protecting against dental injuries, the mouthguards also reduced the risk of concussion by 20%.

The new technology will be debuted later this month in the professional women’s WXV international rugby competition.

World Rugby is making an initial investment of 2 million euros (about $2.12 million) to support rugby unions, competitions, and clubs to pave the way for wide adoption of the new smart mouthguard technology, which is supplied by Prevent Biometrics. The U.S. company has been developing the mouthguard for many years, and so its adoption by World Rugby is a notable development.

Dr Eanna Falvey, chief medical officer of World Rugby, said: “The latest scientific research and expert opinion is telling us one thing — reduce the forces players experience on their heads at all levels of the game. That is exactly what we’re doing.”

Falvey added: “The advances in smart mouthguard technology mean elite players will be better cared for than ever before. We are taking smart mouthguards out of the realm of medical research and putting them into the world of everyday performance management to continue to manage player welfare in the best way possible.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The RTX 50-series may fix the biggest weakness of its predecessor

Nvidia's RTX 50-series is still largely a mystery, but the occasional leak keeps the hype alive. And this time, it's gaming laptop enthusiasts who have reason to be happy. According to Moore's Law Is Dead, Nvidia's Blackwell laptop GPUs are receiving a much-needed boost to the memory interface, implying that Nvidia may have learned from its past mistakes.

Although rumor has it that Nvidia may be aiming to launch the first RTX 50-series desktop GPUs in the final quarter of 2024, we've heard very little about these graphics cards that didn't come from leaks. We've heard even less about their laptop counterparts, but it's possible that those will come later, as NotebookCheck reports that Nvidia may be delaying those models.

Read more
Google just launched a new Pixel Tablet … kind of

With the excitement of the Google Pixel 8a launch, it might have passed a little unnoticed that Google also launched a new Pixel Tablet — though not exactly. For one thing, the “new” Pixel Tablet is the exact same device as the “old” Pixel Tablet. We mean that literally: same specs, same look, same screen. The only difference with the newly launched Pixel Tablet is that it’ll be sold without its charging/speaker dock, unlike the previous model, which included it.

At $399, the new Pixel Tablet is $100 cheaper than the earlier model, but that’s to be expected — both because it doesn’t come with any hardware refresh and also because it cuts the dock. It's also worth noting that it will not be launched with any new first-party accessories like a keyboard or stylus, which were previously rumored for the tablet.

Read more
Does the Google Pixel 8a have a headphone jack?

The Google Pixel 8a is the latest and greatest in Google’s midrange A-series smartphone lineup. It costs an affordable $499, but boasts many features that make Pixel phones so popular, including great camera hardware, a Tensor G3 chip, and a 120Hz refresh rate on its 6.1-inch OLED display. All of this makes it a great option for most people who aren’t looking for cutting-edge specs.

However, you might be wondering if it comes with a headphone jack so you can use it with wired earbuds. Smartphone manufacturers have increasingly eliminated this feature in favor of pushing customers to their own line of Bluetooth earbuds and headphones. Does this also apply to the Pixel 8a? Here’s the deal.
Does the Pixel 8a have a headphone jack?

Read more