When I first got the aligners, even after the 1st week, the aligners never smelt much even straight after I took them out. But on my 10th day, I noticed that it has started to smell a bit. :(
Although I feel a bit of toothpaste and running icy water is good enough for cleaning the aligners... I just want to try out different methods to see whether they're any better! SO...
Asda Denture Cleaning Tablet
I read a lot of reviews that Efferdent cleans the aligners really well but we don't have that brand in the UK! I am wondering whether Steradent (the leading brand here) works the same? Or even a supermarket's own brand like Asda denture cleaning tablet? Since the Asda denture tablet was only 30p for 30 tablets, I've decided to give it a try - Plus I'm at the end of my 1st tray anyway)! On the instruction, it said to leave it for an hour or overnight but I reckon since I don't use my aligners to eat, 10 minutes should be sufficient! (Sometimes you just have to be your own doctor to try out your own prescription!) Anyway, I only soaked the trays in warm water with the tablet while I brushed teeth/washed face.Result: sparkling trays!
Verdict: I think the tablet makes the cleaning a lot easier as sometimes with just toothpaste & water, it's a bit tricky to clean off the white tooth scum on the edges of the trays... But the tablet that I have contains bleach, so I had to make sure I really rinsed the trays properly.
Fairy Liquid
Some people also said to use 'Dawn' dishwashing liquid. Again, we don't have Dawn dishwashing liquid but we do have 'Fairy'! So- I am going to give that a try tomorrow morning!
Doing new things with my aligners keep me excited about wearing them- I guess this is the only way to make me want to wear them for more than 22 hours a day! BUT, what other new things are there to keep me entertained for the rest 11 months?!
Cold Running Water with Sonicare Tooth Brush
I think this is the safest (chemical free!) option ever! I just used one of my old sonicare tooth brush head and with a bit of running water and it works! Although the trays didn't come out as shiny as the previous two methods, they look clean! I was a bit wary of using my normal tooth brush head coz my head might get damaged and heads are quite expensive to buy! So just use an old one if you have it! :)
Wow, they call it fairy liquid? That's so cute. I use the efferdent tablets, but I don't know about anything that works just as good that's in the U.K.
ReplyDeleteI am finding the fairy liquid actually works better than toothpaste!! And it doesn't contain bleach like the denture tablets, which is a big PLUS for me!
ReplyDeleteWow, they contain bleach? I didn't know that. Thanks for telling me that.
ReplyDeleteHi! I m also wearing dentures and just like you I only use toothpaste and water to clean it. My grandfather's dentures (which I commonly compare to my aligners) were soaked in a solution for cleaning. It was like a tablet dissolved in water. He had it cleaned thoroughly, without any stink. I guess I'll just consider it for cleaning. I'll ask our
ReplyDeletedentist (Saint Petersburgbased) if it is also advisable for aligners. I'll keep you updated though.