Excuse me you forgot the mouthpiece on my regulator?

The Humble Scuba Mouthpiece.

It has come to my attention that some dive stores are selling mouthpieces every time a diver borrows or rents a regulator! They cite "health and safety" reasons, "ick factor", or some other scare tactic to sell a new mouthpiece perhaps even upsell you to a special $30 moldable mouthpiece. 

If this happens to you run! What they are doing is ripping you off. The regulator mouthpiece is just one component of the regulator. The regulator itself is an empty container that the diver breathes in and out of, coughs into, spits into, perhaps even vomits into that chamber. So if you are renting or borrowing gear, it all needs to be cleaned and sanitized, not just the mouthpiece. Do you eat with forks from a restaurant? Do you trust that they have been sanitized or do you demand a brand new fork every time you eat?

Now I am happy to sell a new $5.00 mouthpiece to anybody that wants one and I will pocket a few dollars for my trouble, but if I nickel and dime people, eventually they will no longer trust me. 

Remember, the recreational dive industry is a slick business and the sales tactics can be subtle. Watch out for scare tactics and don't feed the sharks!