Biting through my mouthpieces

[Dogbowl]

On my last dive trip, I bit through several mouthpieces of my rental regulator. This has never happened to me previously over 30 dives, so I just wanted to figure out what was going on here. Here are my suspicions:

1) the mouthpieces on the rental regulators this time were either of poor quality or old, so the material has disintegrated? I really don't know anything about mouthpieces so this is really just a guess. But I have a feeling this was the reason.
2) I just had a wisdom tooth pulled on one side where I tended to bite off the mouthpiece more so maybe the molar in front of that wisdom tooth has become particularly sharp? But I was biting off the other side of the mouthpiece too, so I'm not too sure about that.
3) Maybe I was just particularly nervous and biting down really, really hard this time, although I wouldn't know why since I've never had this problem in the past and I wasn't particularly nervous.
4) the regulator was particularly heavy, or the mouthpiece did not fit, so I tried to compensate by biting down on it much too hard?

I know it wasn't ideal, but I was literally holding it in my mouth with my right hand, because I literally bit through every new one that the DM put on, and I was too embarrassed at that point to ask for yet another new one. It wouldn't have made a difference anyway - I would've bit through it in any event.

Do mouthpieces come in different quality, like cheap on the one end and extra durable on the other? Maybe I need to buy some super duper durable ones for my next trip.

 

[flyboy08]

Yes, you can buy better quality mouth pieces...every mouth bite is different, but I like these..

Atomic Dual Silicone Comfort Fit Mouthpiece

My wife bit through hers ONCE...during the shark feeding freenzy at the Blue Hole while we were at the anchor line doing our safety stop

 

[Marie13]

I much prefer the Aqualung/Apeks comfobite mouthpieces.

 

[northernone]

Might be the change in dental situation, perhaps the cheap rental mouthpieces or the most likely you aren't part Labrador retriever dog. A gentle grip is all that should be needed. I use to chew up mouthpieces and have sore jaws until I relaxed. It's the twitchy chewing motions that bite through

I can attest there are different qualities. I have 800+ hrs on some mouthpieces and had others fail at 40 hrs. I've put 200 hrs on the 65 cent eBay kind too though, and that with a heavy reg. Results vary.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[buddhasummer]

My suggestion is stop dropping E before a dive. Just playing. I used to like the AL comfobites but for some reason they now irritate the roof of my mouth. I now like the new soft silicone SP mouth pieces. I also like the long bite ones sold by DGX. Good luck with your search.,

 

[scubadada]

Get yourself a SeaCure mouthpiece*

 

[RyanT]

The quality of the mouthpiece can make a difference, but as @northernone suggested, it's the clamping and chewing that is doing the damage. Learn to relax....the relaxing gets easier the more dives that you do.

 

[scubafanatic]

Get yourself a SeaCure mouthpiece*

These are just as good as Seacure @ 1/2 the price:

DGX Moldable Mouthpiece

 

[scubadada]

These are just as good as Seacure @ 1/2 the price:

DGX Moldable Mouthpiece

Good deal, all my Sea Cure mouthpieces are quite old, I think they will last forever.

 

[Damselfish]

Hard to guess which of the theories is right, but if you have problems biting through mouthpieces I agree a Seacure is worth a try. I don't like them but my husband does and they are pretty tough. If you are renting especially for days or a week, swapping in your own mouthpiece that you like is probably worthwhile.

(I'm another one that finds the comfobites uncomfortable, they irritate the roof of my mouth. I like the Atomic Dual-Silicone Comfort-Fit. You just have to experiment.)