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The Naked Tooth: Inside the Detroit Red Wings Dental Work
June 14, 2008 09:19:13 AM
Sixty-two years ago, in the first game he played for the Red Wings, Gordie Howe lost his two front teeth. The "biters" is what he called them.
Howe scored a goal that game, but the memory of getting "whacked somewhere in front" of the net, he said, never left him. It contributed to Howe's elbows-up style in his three decades as a pro, sparking an infamous line in hockey lore:
"As I used to say, 'It's better to give than to receive,' " Howe said.
Now he adds with a wink: "You become very protective after that."
Howe, 80, was standing within earshot of a recent Wings practice at Joe Louis Arena, where pucks sounded like shotgun blasts as they ricocheted off the glass.
Some things never change.
"You hate to say it's 'part of the game,' but players, well, we're bound to lose a few teeth," he said with a smile.
An early start
It's not 1946 anymore, but losing teeth still seems to be an accepted part of hockey culture among many NHL players, including Red Wings.
When he was 10, Dallas Drake lost his first tooth when he was high-sticked by a girl playing shinny -- a type of hockey -- in a backyard.
Unfortunately for Drake, it set the stage for what was to follow.
"I've got 11 or 12 fake teeth," said Drake, a right wing. "I don't have too many left that are mine."
Drake opened his mouth and pointed to two rows of teeth, upper and lower.
"These six are fake; these four are fake," he said.
He opened wider.
"And then I got a couple of fake ones back in here," he said. "And I've got a bridge."
Drake remembers losing his first tooth in the NHL in the late 1990s after being hit by a puck in the mouth from a slap shot.
The damage was severe; more than one tooth was lost.
"It knocked out four down here, and caved all my other teeth in, so I lost four there," he said. "Over the years, I've been hit more and just kept knocking them out."
This season, in a game against Calgary, Drake said he broke his bridge when he was high-sticked in the mouth. He termed the incident an inconvenience more than anything.
"When they're fake, it's not too painful -- not many nerves left in there," he said. "We were on a road trip, so my teeth were out for four or five days."
Asked how he ate, Drake said nonchalantly: "Stick the food back there, as far as you can, and chew it."
'I hate the dentist'
Mikael Samuelsson said he had "1 1/2 teeth" knocked out last month when he took a high stick in the mouth from Colorado's Peter Forsberg.
"One, I lost the whole thing, and the other one I cracked," Samuelsson said.
Henrik Zetterberg has lost one tooth this season, he said. Dan Cleary had several teeth removed after he suffered a broken jaw in February. That was in addition to the three titanium plates and 15 screws inserted into the three fractures.
Kris Draper was expected to learn this week if his three badly damaged lower teeth -- which resulted from a goal scored off his chin in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against Dallas -- were going to make it.
The puck went in off a centering pass from Drake. A half-dozen stitches were needed to close a gash on Draper's lower lip, and his loose teeth were secured into place with a brace. He returned to the game.
Draper said of the damaged teeth: "They completely had bent back. I had teeth where they weren't supposed to be, and they literally had to click one at a time and put them back into place."
Darren McCarty -- sporting the most well-known gap-toothed grin among current Wings -- said when he lost his right front tooth for the first time eight years ago, "my mom was devastated."
"I got straight teeth," McCarty said. "I didn't wear braces growing up. I was blessed."
He said he had a post and a replacement tooth put in, but the tooth kept getting knocked out when he played. During the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs, McCarty recalled, he became so irritated with the problem that he performed his own oral surgery and "yanked the post out."
The tooth eventually will be replaced, McCarty said, once he's retired from hockey.
"Look at Homer," he said of teammate Tomas Holmstrom. "Ask Homer about his teeth. He's like Matt Dillon in 'Something about Mary' -- Chompers. He's got the whole grill.
"Some guys do that, and some guys wait. I hate the dentist. I don't like the whole needle thing, the smell. I'm going to wait, and then I'll get everything done at once."
Need a mouth guard?
Had Draper not worn a mouth guard, he believes the injury he suffered against Dallas would have been much worse.
Another time this season, Draper was hit by a stick with so much force, it left tape residue on his cracked mouth guard.
"If he didn't have that mouth guard in, those two front teeth would have been gone," said Dr. Chester (Chet) Regula, whose Livonia-based Preferred Dental Group has worked on Red Wings players for 25 years.
Draper agrees.
"There have been times when I've come off and my mouth guard has been split open," Draper said. "And if it wasn't for that, I obviously would have lost some teeth.
"Wearing a mouth guard, it's a choice, but I've always worn one. I still have my teeth with a lot of hockey games."
Unlike helmets, mouth guards aren't mandatory in the NHL.
Though more players today are wearing visors or shields, the equipment doesn't protect the mouth and jaw from injury, said Regula, who practices orthodontics and general dentistry.
Entering preseason camp each year, Regula fits players with custom-fit mouth guards categorized as Class V, meaning best of the best.
Fabricated from multiple layers of pressure-laminated poly-vinyl, Regula said research has shown that Class V mouth guards significantly reduce the incidence of dental trauma.
They also guard against the risk of concussions by reducing the force transmitted by a blow to the chin or jaw.
Regula estimates that 50% of the Red Wings wear mouth guards. He wishes everyone did.
"Culturally, it's a badge of courage, but as a dentist, it's hard for me to understand," he said. "We also do the dentistry for the Lions, and their culture is different than the hockey culture. There's probably not a single player on the football field that is not wearing a mouth guard. They don't all wear Class V -- they all have their little things -- but I would say that 90% of the Lions are in Class V mouth guards.
"The hockey players, maybe we get half of the players that wear them. And each comes up with their own reason (for not wearing one). They say it impairs their breathing. We have studies: The mouth guard will not impair your breathing."
Playing with fire
That's Andreas Lilja's reason for not wearing one. So far, he hasn't had any teeth knocked out playing hockey, he said.
Zetterberg wears a mouth guard. He said the time he didn't, in practice, he got hit in the face and lost a tooth.
McCarty doesn't wear one. Neither does Holmstrom.
"It's uncomfortable -- the pinching -- and it feels like I can't breathe," said Holmstrom, who figures he has lost about seven teeth playing hockey.
Jiri Hudler said he "sometimes" wears a mouth guard. So far, he hasn't had any teeth knocked out.
"It's actually uncomfortable to talk about," Hudler said. "I know it's going to happen, sometime. I've taken a stick and pucks to my face, but it's never come down to where I'm spitting out my teeth."
In addition to mouth guards, Regula personally would like to see every NHL player wearing a cage on his helmet for maximum protection.
"The value of (protective equipment) has increased as the intensity of the sport has grown," he said.
No doubt about the intensity part, said former Red Wing Mickey Redmond.
"Things are happening at light speed, and players are getting hit with pucks that they don't even see," he said. "That was rare in our day. The players now are so much bigger and faster and stronger, so the injuries are more severe.
"Another thing is, you have these composite sticks where the puck's going 100 miles per hour off everybody's stick. In the old days, not everybody shot the puck that well. But now, it's a laser beam all the time."
Redmond said he didn't lose a tooth in his NHL career, which spanned 1967-75.
"I was taught by my father to use my stick as a protector," he said. "I was never that big. It was my line of defense. If anybody was running at me, the stick came up. Even tough guys respect that lumber."
Do as I say...
Kirk Maltby said if his children grow up playing contact sports "where pucks and balls are flying around," they'll be outfitted with every device available to ensure their safety.
The irony: Maltby doesn't wear a mouth guard.
"Chet recommends it, and it sits in my stall," Maltby said, sheepishly. "It goes on road trips. They pack it and everything. Maybe in a foolish way, I just don't want to wear one. The same way with my shield -- I didn't wear my shield until I got a serious eye injury in 1995-96, when I ripped my retina.
"It's stupid. Because it's like anything else, nobody ever does anything until someone gets seriously hurt."
Contact JO-ANN BARNAS at 313-222-2037 or jbarnas@freepress.com.
