Cleaning Your Trays (and Your Teeth)

It should go without saying that you should clean both your trays and your teeth if you want to avoid bad breath and cavities. I'll make no assumptions and just give you the run down on what seems to be the easiest way to stay fresh, clean, and keep your trays see-through.

A note about toothpaste and mouthwash: My dentist recommended that I not use any sort of whitening toothpaste when brushing my trays due to it's abrasive nature and potential to cause damage to the trays. That said, it's totally OK to brush your teeth with whitening toothpaste. I was also advised to not use mouthwashes with alcohol before putting the trays on because alcohol can dry out the trays and make them brittle. I'm not going to cover mouthwash here. If you use it, get the alcohol-free version of your favorite kind.

Daily Routine - Brushing / Flossing

You'll need:

1. Two soft-bristled toothbrushes. One for home and one to take with you every where else.
2. Toothpaste.  If your usual toothpaste has "whitening action" you'll also need one without.
3. Floss. I like Oral-B glide. Crest also makes a glide floss.

Morning Brush: Your mouth is going to be full of funk, your trays are going to be in, and you need to brush to be clean.

1. Try leaving your trays in and brush them with non-whitening toothpaste.
2. Spit and rinse, not pop out your trays.
3. Brush the insides of your trays with the remaining non-whitening toothpaste left on your brush.
4. Now brush your teeth with the toothpaste of your choice.

Midday Brushing: You'll be brushing to get the food out of your teeth before putting your trays back on after you eat.

1. Brush your teeth and trays (inside and out) with non-whitening toothpaste.
2. Floss if you're amazing. I only floss at the end of the day.

Final Brush Before Bed: You'll be prepping your teeth for an overnight stay with the trays on. You don't want to leave anything in there. Brush well!

1. Brush your teeth with the toothpaste of your choice.
2. Floss like you mean it, leave no gunk behind.
3. Brush your trays (inside and out) with non-whitening toothpaste and pay special attention to get all the crevices.

Technically if you flossed the night before you should be set so you don't have to floss in the morning. Pay attention to white cloudy stuff on the insides of your trays. This can be brushed off. Also pay mind to any roughness you feel on your trays while you're wearing them. Brush these parts thoroughly before bed.

Weekly Routine - Soaking

You'll need:

1. A cup or a glass big enough to hold your trays.
2. Retainer Bright cleaning tablets.

Easy to find on Amazon.com

About once a week (or when the trays starting to have a smell about them - ick!) I'll give them a soak in the Retainer Brite. You can find lots of sellers on www.amazon.com. I think I paid around $25 for 64 tablets. I think 36 tablets would last you way longer than 1 month, assuming you're brushing your trays.

The instructions are printed on the side of the box. Cleaning is a snap and takes less than half an hour. I've pasted some images of the process below.

Instructions printed on the side of the box.

Take out a Retainer Bright cleaning tablet.

Put the capsule in warm water

It gets pretty fizzy! Toss in your trays.

Wait till the water is clear and then you're done!

Don't forget to rinse your trays after you take them out of the solution. If you notice they aren't as clear as you were hoping, it could be related to needing to brush the trays OR torquing the trays. The trays get bend when you bite down while they're in your mouth or when you remove them. This can cause the plastic to look more white towards the end of their cycle. Cleaning them won't help this. Just try to be careful of bending them.