The short version: Inspire Dental & Orthodontics is now a sponsor of the North Garland Sports Association, the volunteer-run youth baseball league that plays out of Holford Park on North Shiloh Road. Registration, volunteer forms, and the season schedule all live at northbaseball.org. If your player takes a ball or a bat to the mouth this season, call our Garland office at (469) 329-1069. We keep same-day emergency slots open, and dental injuries are one of the few things at a ballfield where the first hour genuinely changes the outcome.
- Garland natives since 2017
- 2,700+ five-star reviews
- Bilingual team
- Medicaid, CHIP and most PPO plans
- Same-day emergencies
Why we put our name on a youth baseball league
Dr. Darshan Patel and Dr. John Paul grew up in Garland. They opened Inspire Dental & Orthodontics here in 2017, and a good share of the kids in our chairs are the same kids you see at Holford Park on a Saturday morning. Sponsoring the North Garland Sports Association was not a marketing decision so much as a neighborhood one.
NGSA is a nonprofit that runs baseball for players roughly 4u through 14u, drawing families from Garland, Richardson, Wylie and Murphy. It’s run by volunteers. The board is a president, a treasurer, a player agent, a handful of age-division reps, and parents who show up early to drag the infield. Anyone who has coached knows the budget is real: umpires, insurance, field maintenance, balls that disappear into the treeline, and uniforms for every kid who signs up whether or not the family can cover the fee.
That last part is the piece we care about. A registration fee is a small number until it isn’t, and leagues like this quietly carry families through every season.
Baseball is a dental sport, even though nobody treats it like one
Football gets the mouthguard rules. Baseball mostly doesn’t, and the injury data has never really supported that split. A pitched ball off a bat, a bad hop on a dirt infield, a headfirst slide into a knee, a backswing in the on-deck circle. The American Dental Association recommends mouthguards for baseball and softball alongside the contact sports, and most youth leagues still leave it to the parents.
So here’s the honest comparison, without the sales pitch.
| Option | What it costs | The tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Stock mouthguard from the sporting goods aisle | Under $10 | Better than nothing. Bulky, kids talk funny in it, and a guard that lives in the bat bag protects nobody. |
| Boil-and-bite | $15 to $30 | A reasonable middle ground for a 6u or 8u player whose teeth are changing fast anyway. Refit it every season. |
| Custom guard from a dental impression | More, and usually not covered by insurance | Thinner, stays put, kids actually wear it. Worth it for a 12u or 14u player, and worth it for anyone in braces. |
If your player is in treatment with our orthodontic team, ask about a guard built to fit over the brackets. Braces and a stock guard are a bad combination, and a lip laceration against bracket wings is a genuinely miserable way to end a game. We make custom sports guards at the Garland office.
If a tooth gets hit at the park
Most ballfield mouth injuries are a fat lip and a scare. A few are not. This is the part worth knowing before it happens, because the useful window on a knocked-out permanent tooth is short.
- Find the tooth and pick it up by the crown. The crown is the chewing part. Avoid touching the root, which carries the cells that let a tooth reattach.
- Rinse it gently with water or milk if it’s dirty. No scrubbing, no soap, no wrapping it in a dry napkin.
- Put it back in the socket if you reasonably can and have your player bite down on a clean cloth to hold it. A permanent tooth replanted within about 30 minutes has a much better outlook than one replanted at the two hour mark.
- If replanting isn’t realistic, store it in milk. Milk beats water. Water damages the root surface. Saline or the player’s own saliva also work in a pinch.
- Call us on the way. (469) 329-1069 for Garland. We hold same-day slots, and telling us you’re coming means the room is ready.
One important exception. A knocked-out baby tooth should not be put back in. Replanting a primary tooth can damage the permanent tooth developing behind it. Bring your child in, bring the tooth if you have it, and let us look.
For chips and cracks, the urgency depends on what you can see. A small enamel chip can usually wait until Monday. A fracture showing yellow dentin or a pink dot of pulp needs attention that day. If the tooth is loose but still in place, or the bite suddenly feels off, that’s a same-day call too. Our emergency dental care page covers what to expect, and we keep a plain-language rundown of what a broken tooth actually needs.
What sponsorship money does at this level
Keeps fees down
Sponsor dollars offset registration for families who need it, which is the difference between a kid playing and a kid watching.
Pays for the unglamorous stuff
Umpires, field prep, insurance, equipment. None of it shows up in the highlight reel and all of it has to be paid for.
Keeps volunteers going
NGSA runs on parents. Coaches, team parents, concession shifts, and board seats that are open most years.
If you want in, the coach and volunteer registration and the current season’s signup are both on the NGSA site. Season dates and age-division cutoffs change year to year, so check there rather than taking our word for it.
The dental side of a long season
Two things we see every spring worth mentioning.
The first is sugar timing. It isn’t the sports drink itself so much as the sipping. A bottle nursed across three innings keeps the mouth acidic for two hours, which is far harder on enamel than the same drink finished in ten minutes. Water between innings, the fun stuff after the game. If your player is due, we handle cleanings and exams in Garland and can usually work around a practice schedule with evening and Saturday appointments.
The second is timing braces around a season. Parents ask whether to wait until after the fall season, and the answer is usually no. Orthodontic timing is driven by growth and eruption, not the baseball calendar, and a properly fitted guard handles the rest. Our orthodontic care is braces from $3,499 with a free, no-obligation consult, and our board-certified orthodontist will tell you plainly if your child isn’t ready yet. Younger players usually start with a pediatric visit instead.
Two hometown dentists, three offices, one league
Dr. Darshan Patel, DMD and Dr. John Paul, DMD are Garland natives who founded Inspire Dental & Orthodontics in 2017. Dr. Paul was named a D Magazine Best Dentist in 2026. General, pediatric, and orthodontic care all sit under one roof, so a family doesn’t get split across three practices. Our team is bilingual in English and Spanish, we accept Texas Medicaid, CHIP and most PPO plans, and we file claims for our patients. More than 2,700 five-star Google reviews across our locations, most of them from families within a few miles of the fields.
Visit our Garland office
Inspire Dental & Orthodontics – Garland
930 W Centerville Rd, Ste A, Garland, TX 75041
(469) 329-1069
- From Holford Park (2420 N Shiloh Rd, 75044), head south. The office is roughly 15 minutes from the fields outside of rush hour.
- From I-635 (LBJ Freeway), exit Centerville Road and head north.
- From Rowlett, Sachse or Sunnyvale, take Centerville Road straight in.
Free parking on site. We see families from North Garland, South Garland, Firewheel, and neighboring Sachse, Rowlett, Wylie, Murphy, Richardson, Sunnyvale and Seagoville, across ZIP codes 75040, 75041, 75042, 75043, 75044, 75088 and 75089. Our Garland dental office page has hours and the full service list.
Questions parents ask us
How do I sign my child up for North Garland Sports Association baseball?
Registration is handled by the league at northbaseball.org, not by us. The site has player registration, coach and volunteer forms, the league contact list, and current season information. NGSA plays out of Holford Park at 2420 N Shiloh Rd in Garland and runs divisions for players roughly 4u through 14u.
Does my child need a mouthguard for baseball?
The American Dental Association recommends one for baseball and softball, even though most youth leagues don’t require it. Injuries come from pitched balls, bad hops, backswings, and slides. A boil-and-bite guard is fine for younger players whose teeth are still changing. A custom guard fits better and gets worn more, which matters more than the material. Any player in braces should have a guard made to fit over the brackets.
What should I do if my child’s tooth is knocked out at a game?
Pick the tooth up by the crown, not the root. Rinse it gently with milk or water if it’s dirty, then put it back in the socket if you can and have your child bite on a clean cloth. If you can’t replant it, store it in milk and get to a dentist quickly, ideally within 30 minutes. Do not replant a baby tooth, since that can harm the permanent tooth developing underneath. Call our Garland office at (469) 329-1069 on the way and we’ll have a room ready.
Do you take Medicaid or CHIP for kids’ dental visits?
Yes. Inspire Dental & Orthodontics accepts Texas Medicaid, CHIP and most PPO plans at all three of our offices, and we file claims for our patients. For braces, Texas Medicaid can cover treatment for children under 21 when it is determined to be medically necessary through a state evaluation, so coverage is not automatic. We check eligibility before treatment starts and tell you what your share will be.
Where are your offices and what are the phone numbers?
Three offices. Garland: 930 W Centerville Rd, Ste A, Garland, TX 75041, (469) 329-1069. Mesquite: 909 Tripp Rd, Ste 190, Mesquite, TX 75150, (972) 408-4003. Balch Springs: 11203 Lake June Rd, Ste 120, Balch Springs, TX 75180, (972) 752-6210. All three offer evening and Saturday appointments and same-day emergency care.
See you at Holford Park
Our name will be on a banner this season, which is nice. What we’d rather you take from it is the phone number. If something happens at the park, don’t wait it out and don’t Google it in the parking lot. Call the office, tell us what happened, and drive over.
