From the moment you place an order to the moment a finished guard arrives at your door is 10–14 days. Most of that time is shipping and impression-return; the lab stage itself runs 2–3 business days. Here is what happens at each stage, why we pressure-laminate instead of 3D-print, and how every guard is QC'd before it leaves the lab.
The 10–14 days overview
The pipeline is intentionally simple: order → kit out → impression at home → kit back → manufacture → QC → ship. Each step has a defined window, and we communicate progress at every transition.
Three things are worth knowing before the step-by-step. First, the part of the process you control is the impression; everything after it happens in our own facility in Rochester, Minnesota. Second, the lab stage is the short part. Most of the 10–14 days is parcels moving in each direction, which is why the single best thing you can do for your timeline is take the impression soon after the kit arrives and post it straight back. Third, your guard is built over a physical cast of your teeth rather than stretched over a generic shell. That one design decision is what separates a custom guard from a boil-and-bite, and nearly every step below exists to protect it.
| Stage | Where it happens | What happens | Your part |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Order and design | Online | You build the guard in the 3D customiser and pay | Choose guard, colours, text, artwork |
| 2. Kit out | Courier | Impression kit ships from our US fulfilment partner | Watch for the parcel |
| 3. Impression | Your bathroom | You record your teeth in the impression material | Follow the card, hold still, inspect |
| 4. Return | Postal service | Sealed impression travels back on the prepaid label | Drop it at a collection point |
| Steps 5–7. Lab | Rochester, Minnesota | Inspect, scan, cast, laminate, trim, finish | Nothing; we email at each transition |
| 8. Final QC and ship | Rochester, then courier | Check against the scan, seal in a case, ship tracked | Watch for the parcel |
Step 1 — Order and design (5 minutes)
You order on gumgear.com/sport, /scuba, or /party and design your guard in the 3D customiser: base colours, layered finishes, custom text (name, gym, slogan), uploaded artwork. The design is rendered live on a 3D model so what you see is what you get.
Payment is via Stripe — all major cards plus Apple Pay and Google Pay. Guest checkout is supported; you can create an account afterwards to track the order and save designs for future guards.
Step 2 — Kit ships to you (1–3 days)
Within 48 hours of ordering, an impression kit ships from our US fulfilment partner. The kit contains: two impression trays (primary + backup), the two-part impression putty, a printed instruction card, and a prepaid return envelope. Tracked shipping, normally arrives in 1–3 business days.
Step 3 — At-home impression (5–10 minutes)
You take the impression yourself, in front of a bathroom mirror, in 5–10 minutes. Full step-by-step in how to take a dental impression at home. The key points: mix the material, load the tray, seat it firmly, hold still for 3–5 minutes, remove and inspect every tooth. The backup tray is included specifically for retakes — nobody nails it every time, and that is expected.
Step 4 — Prepaid return shipping (2–4 days)
Drop the sealed return envelope at any USPS collection point. The prepaid label is on it; no postage to buy. Most impressions reach our intake within 2–4 business days from drop-off, depending on your location. We receive impressions Monday through Friday and log every one into the order tracking system.
Step 5 — Digital scan and QC
Steps 5 through 7 — scan, laminate, and trim — are the lab stage of the process. Together they run 2–3 business days from the moment your impression reaches us to the moment your guard ships.
Every impression that arrives is inspected by a technician for tooth coverage, depth, and distortion. If it passes, it is digitally scanned at high resolution to create a 3D model of your bite. The scan is the master file used downstream and is archived so any future guard you order skips the impression step entirely — we already have your scan on file.*
* We recommend a fresh scan if your last one is more than two years old, because teeth and gums change over time.
If the impression fails QC, we email you the same day with a photo of what is wrong and ship a replacement kit. No charge.
Why some impressions are rejected
Rejection is not a judgement on your technique. It is the reason the finished guard fits. Your guard is a copy of whatever the impression recorded, so every flaw in the impression is faithfully reproduced downstream: a bubble on a biting surface becomes a bump in the cast, and a bump in the cast becomes a high spot in the guard. The technician looks for four things:
- Coverage. Every tooth in the arch recorded, including the back molars. A tray that sat off-centre captures half the mouth well and the other half not at all.
- Depth. The teeth sank far enough into the material to record the gum line, not just the tips.
- Distortion. No smearing or doubled edges from the tray moving while the material set.
- Voids. No air pockets or tears, especially across the biting surfaces.
If you want to catch these yourself before posting, the checks are the same ones in our at-home impression walk-through. And the backup tray exists so a failed first attempt costs you ten minutes rather than a delay.
Step 6 — Pressure lamination
We cast a physical positive from your digital scan and use it as a forming buck. Multiple layers of medical-grade EVA are heated and pressure-laminated over the buck under industrial vacuum — this is the same process every reputable dental lab uses to fabricate sports guards. Combat Guard ($169) gets additional layers and additional thickness over the anterior and molar regions compared to Contact Guard ($99).
Layer count, layer thickness, and lamination pressure are the three variables that produce the protection difference between the tiers — and those are the variables you cannot reproduce in a boil-and-bite. Comparison breakdown in boil-and-bite vs custom mouthguard.
Why lamination, and why layers
A boil-and-bite is a single factory shell that you soften and press once with your fingers and your bite. You have a few seconds, no control over how thick the material ends up, and it tends to thin out exactly where you bite hardest. Lamination works the other way round. Sheets of EVA are heated until pliable, then pressed over the cast under pressure and vacuum so the layers bond into one piece and conform to every contour of the cast, including the undercuts near the gum line that give the finished guard its grip.
Layers matter because EVA absorbs impact by compressing and then recovering, and a stack of bonded layers gives you more material to compress and a larger area across which to spread the force. Layer count and thickness are therefore design choices rather than accidents of how hard someone pressed: they are set by the tier you order and repeated precisely from guard to guard. A mouthguard reduces the risk of dental injury from impact; it does not remove it, and no construction can promise that.
Step 7 — Trim, polish, and design application
The laminated blank is trimmed to the finished gum-line on a CNC carving stage, then hand-finished and polished. Your design — the colours, text, and artwork you set in the customiser — is applied at this stage.
Step 8 — Final QC and ship (1–3 days)
Every finished guard is QC'd against the original digital scan for fit accuracy, layer integrity, and visual finish. Pass means the guard is cleaned, sealed into a ventilated case, and shipped with tracked courier. Fail means the guard is remade — you do not pay for that, and you are not even notified unless the remake affects timing.
Contact Guard vs Combat Guard
These are two tiers of the same Sport Guard, not two different products. Every step above is identical; what changes is the build. Combat Guard ($169) has additional layers and thickness compared with Contact Guard ($99), which is the right trade for sports where the main risk is a strike to the face, such as MMA, boxing, Muay Thai and kickboxing. Contact Guard suits rugby, hockey, lacrosse, basketball and BJJ, where the risk is more often a collision, an elbow or a fall.
More material is more bulk, which is why you should not default to the thickest option. Details for each tier are on the Contact Guard and Combat Guard pages, and the sport-by-sport reasoning is in the combat sports mouthguard guide.
Scuba and Party guards
The pipeline is the same for every GumGear product: order, kit, impression, return, lab, QC, ship. The material is what differs. Scuba Guard ($199) is moulded over a cast of your impression or scan in medical-grade silicone rather than EVA, because it has to live in saltwater and sustained submerged use, not take a punch. Party Guard ($99) is made from the same medical-grade EVA family as the sport guards. If you dive, the full picture is in the custom scuba regulator mouthpiece guide, and the Party range is at /party.
Why not 3D-printed?
We get asked this regularly. 3D-printed mouthguards exist — SLA and DLP resin prints, FDM PLA prints, and a handful of nylon SLS prints. None of them currently match the impact-absorption characteristics of pressure-laminated EVA, and the resin printing systems that come closest use materials that are not stable for long-term oral contact.
Pressure-laminated EVA is the long-established material for sports guards, and it is the one we trust for impact protection. We make the manufacturing process digital where it helps (scan, modelling, trim path) and use the proven physical process where it matters (lamination, finish).
Questions to ask any custom-guard maker
"Custom" is a loose word on a product page. Whoever makes your guard, these are fair questions, and the answers tell you more than the label does:
- Is it made over a physical copy of my teeth? A guard built over a cast of your impression or scan is custom. A stock shell you reshape at home is not, however it is marketed.
- Does anyone inspect the impression before work starts? If a maker accepts anything you post, a poor impression becomes a poor guard.
- How many layers, and how thick? Protection comes from the material stack, so a maker should be able to tell you what yours is.
- How is the finished guard checked? Ours is compared against your original scan for fit, layer integrity and finish.
- What happens if it does not fit, and for how long? Ours is a free remake within 30 days.
If you are weighing price against process, the numbers are laid out in is a custom mouthguard worth the cost.
Braces and other special cases
Braces. The at-home kit cannot make a guard for braces. The impression putty cannot release cleanly over brackets and wires without tearing, and a braces-compatible guard needs an in-person professional dental scan. If you wear braces, contact us before ordering so we do not sell you a kit that will not work.
Crooked teeth and gaps. These are not a problem. The impression records your teeth as they are, so the guard is made for your mouth specifically.
Recent or planned dental work. The guard fits the bite you had when the impression was taken. If you have had dental work, or your teeth are changing for any reason, tell us before ordering and we will work out what makes sense.
Sore, loose or untreated teeth. A mouthguard is protective equipment, not dental treatment. If you have loose teeth, bleeding gums, pain, or a tooth that needs attention, see a dentist before taking an impression.
When your guard arrives
Run the four checks in how to fit a mouthguard the day it arrives: it should stay on without clenching, cover every tooth back to the last molar, not gag you, and not rock under pressure. Wear it in training before you rely on it in competition, and note anything that feels off while you are still inside the 30-day window. For day-to-day upkeep, see how to clean a mouthguard and how long a mouthguard lasts.
Fit guarantee
If your guard arrives and does not fit correctly, contact us within 30 days. We will work with you to identify what happened — usually it is something visible on the scan we can address without a new impression — and remake the guard at no charge if needed. The fit guarantee is the reason we run QC against the original scan: most fit issues are caught before the guard ships, and the rest are resolved without argument.
Ready to start? Order at /sport, /scuba, or /party. Or read the buying-side decisions in the complete custom mouthguard guide.
