Keeping your retainers clean is a crucial aspect of your daily oral health and when you have clean Invisalign retainers, they will have a longer lifespan. There are many methods in cleaning retainers, some natural, some with over-the-counter products. Both will do the trick, but these are the best ways to clean Invisalign retainers.
Depending on how you want to clean your retainers, you’ll have a variety of options. First, we will start with how to daily clean Invisalign retainers. These cleaning tips are meant to remove the everyday bacteria and biofilm from your retainers. Doing this is a great step in expanding the lifespan and keeping your retainer material strong.
Let’s start with a travel tip first on how to clean Invisalign retainers. We recommend a cleaning foam called RX Dent Foam Action. This won’t give your retainer a deep clean, but it can quickly clean it while you are on the road. Spraying all sides of the retainer, the cleaning solution will foam up and clean the crevices and pockets. This is perfect for a quick cleaning and helps remove the biofilm.
To daily clean Invisalign retainers, we recommend coming up a simple routine that is easy to stick to. You should do the cleaning either in the morning after you take your retainers out, or clean them before wearing at night. The best daily cleaning solution that SportingSmiles supports is Fresh Guard Soak Solution. This method should take around seven minutes to complete. All you need to do is rinse your retainer off in warm water, make sure the water isn’t hot as high temperatures can damage the material. Tear open the packet of Fresh Guard and pour the solution into the warm water. The solution will foam up and turn blue. This means it’s ready for your retainer to be santized. Fully emerge your retainer in the solution and let it soak for five minutes before washing it off in warm water again.
To deep clean Invisalign retainers, you have many options and products. Doing a deep clean will heavily remove bacteria build-up, and potentially get rid of the yellow or white spots that have grown from the bacteria in your mouth. If you are able to do a deep clean once a week, that will go a long way into keeping your retainer in great shape.
Giving a deep clean means letting your retainer soak for 20 to 30 minutes in any of these solutions. Vinegar, Castille Soap mixed with water, and Baking Soda mixed with water are all great ways that will help dissolve bacteria, especially the crusty build up. These solutions will also help eliminate odors. Once your retainer has been soaking for suggested timeframe, take a soft bristle tooth brush and gentle scrub your retainer with the cleaning solution of your choice. This will rub off the crusty spots and get rid of the micro bacteria that can grow into more problematic spots that can ruin the material. If the material is ruined, you’ll need a set of replacement retainers.
Having clean Invisalign retainers is crucial to keeping the material strong. When retainers are weakened by bacteria, they can snap and you’ll need replacement retainers. Your retainers if cleaned properly, should last anywhere from one to two years. After that, they will need to be replaced.
You can get a replacement set of retainers from SportingSmiles. These are the exact same premium retainers you’d receive from your dentist but at half the cost. You can receive these retainers all from the comfort of your home by using the SportingSmiles patented impression kit. By taking easy-at-home impressions, you’ll ship them back to our lab where our experts will craft you the set. Each order in the United States has free three-way shipping.
Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to clean Invisalign retainers. They might be too dirty, crusty, or yellow to wear. When this happens, SportingSmiles can craft you your next set with no hassle, no big bills, and it can all be done from the comfort of your home.
