Cerebral palsy, a range of non-progressive syndromes of posture and motor impairment, is a common cause of disability in childhood. Self-injurious behavior(SIB) is deliberate harm to the body without suicidal intend, often involving repetitive actions that cause tissue damage. One of the most common orofacial self-injurious behavior is chewing tongue, lip or oral mucosa. This kind of SIB in children is not common in normal children. High occurrence rates are observered in cases of syndromatic, mentally retarded children, and children with congenital disease. Various methods such as behavior modification, behavior control by drugs, body restraints, application of dental appliance, surgery and extraction of teeth have been suggested to control those self-injurious behavior. Using mouthguard as one of dental applainaces is the most conservative and appropriate method in terms of reducing oral self-injurious habits and protection of tissue. This case report describes a child with cerebral palsy who presented with self-injurious ulceration of lip and buccal mucosa. A modified mouthguard was effective in preventing self-injurious oral trauma in a child with cerebral palsy.
