how to clean night guard

Wondering what's the best way to give your night guard a deep clean and better understand the importance of keeping your dental products clean? You've come to the right place! Sporting Smiles has conducted extensive research into the matter of cleaning night guards and has come away with recommending a few different methods depending on the preference of the wearer. We've put these methods to use and tested them out ourselves, so we can be confident when recommending them. How do I clean my night guard? Glad you asked!

Cleaning your night guard can be an easy routine to get into. You'll want a soft bristle toothbrush and anti-bacterial soap to start. We recommend giving your night guard a daily cleanse by running it under warm water for about 30 seconds. After the night guard is wet, gently brush it with your soft-bristle toothbrush with anti-bacterial soap applied. Make sure the soap doesn't contain any alcohol as it can dry out the night guard and potentially make it brittle. Daily cleansing will help keep your night guard crystal-clear and rid it of biofilm and potential bacteria from your mouth.

Aside from giving your night guard a daily scrubbing with a soft-bristle toothbrush, it's important to give it a deep cleaning once a week. Depending on the wearer, your night guard can be deep cleaned a few different ways. If you'd like a simple yet effective solution to giving your night guard a deep clean, retainer tablets will do the trick. These tablets are to be dropped in a warm glass of water with your night guard fully submerged. The tablet will begin to dissolve turning the water into a blue and bubbly cleaning solution. Chemicals inside the tablet will dissolve any bacteria and biofilm from your mouth. It's important to remove build-up on your night guard or else a strong odor will develop and attract your pets that may find the night guard as an appealing chew toy.

These cleaning tablets will do the trick in 7-10 minutes. If you want to thoroughly clean your night guard, dip a soft-bristled toothbrush in the solution and gently scrub it before washing it under warm running water. Again, we recommend this type of treatment once a week to fully remove the bacteria build-up.

If chemicals aren't your thing, you can clean your night guard naturally. Both white vinegar and apple-cider vinegar can act as a disinfectant. Fill up a glass with water halfway and then add in your vinegar of choice. Make sure to stir the mixture and then place your night guard into the solution. Let the night guard soak for 20 minutes before removing it and washing it under warm running water for about two minutes. Vinegar can leave your night guard with a strong odor so use a soft-bristle toothbrush to scrub away all of the vinegar.

Baking soda is a valid cleaning solution to properly cleansing your night guard. Pure baking soda is used to prevent bad smells in your fridge but it can also be a viable way of how to clean your night guard. It's very cheap at about a dollar and easy to use. Mix 3/4 of a cup of water with two tablespoons of baking soda. Stir it with a spoon until it is a cloudy solution. Once the solution is properly mixed, place your gross night guard into the mix and let it soak for 20 to 30 minutes. Once the time has passed, remove your night guard and wash it under warm running water.

Our third and final natural cleaning solution for your night guard is Castile Soap. Naturally made with hemp oils, coconut, and other natural ingredients this soap will foam up nicely when scrubbed onto your retainer. Use the liquid form of the soap and mix a small amount of it into a glass of water before submerging your night guard. Let the night guard soak for 10 minutes. After the time has passed, remove your night guard and begin scrubbing it with a soft-bristle toothbrush. The soap will foam up on the night guard cleaning all the crevices. Make sure to wash your night guard under warm water for about 30 seconds before placing it back in its storage case.

Cleaning your night guard is important as it removes the biofilm and bacteria from your mouth. If your night guard turns a cloudy white or begins to grow yellow spots those are huge red flags. Give your night guard a deep cleaning with the above recommendations and be sure to keep up your daily cleansing as it will prolong the life of your night guard.

Sometimes night guards are too dirty to be revived. When that happens, it's time to find a replacement night guard. Sporting Smiles offers six different night guards all with unique features for different teeth grinding issues. These night guards are custom-made to fit your mouth perfectly and will instantly relieve teeth grinding pain when properly worn.

Seth Newman

Seth is an award-winning multimedia journalist with over a thousand bylines in nationally published magazines, research blogs, and news articles.