Using the power of ultrasonic waves the dental pod is designed
to keep your clear braces or retainers sparklingly clean and crystal clear.
However, my results haven’t been quite like the adverts.
Hey, it’s Jon from Electric Teeth here.
In the last couple of years I’ve used Invisalign clear aligners or braces if you
prefer to straighten my teeth. I now keep them in place by wearing a Vivera retainer at night.
I would clean my aligners 2 or 3 times a day using a toothbrush and warm water. I would then
soak them in an aligner cleaners at the very least every 2 days, but more often every day.
This worked well on the whole, the aligners remained fairly clean
and fresh. Given that I was replacing the aligners most weeks, I was happy.
When I did have to wear an aligner for longer periods, I did notice a slight
discolouration despite regular cleaning. Annoying, but not the end of the world.
Now 8 months in to wearing my retainers,
they are discolouring and are not as clear as they were when new.
I religiously clean them in the morning, after having worn them at night. And then every few
days I soak them in the same cleaning solution that I used for the aligners.
They certainly appear to come up a bit cleaner and taste fresher when they have had a soak. But,
it is a little frustrating that they are not as clear as they were.
The advice appears to be that you should replace the retainers after about 9 months or so. But,
I have been told with good care they can last a lot longer,
and that is my intention. Hey, it saves quite a bit of money.
So, when I saw the advert for Zima Dentals ultrasonic cleaning pod,
I was rather intrigued. If the advert was to be believed I could expect stunningly clean
retainers after every use. The before and after images were quite staggering.
It isn’t suitable just for braces, mouthguards and even dentures can be cleaned in this too.
The neatly designed pod looks quite smart sat on a countertop.
It’s primarily sold in white, but other colours are available.
It is pretty smooth to the touch with a power connector on the rear and a small
touch sensitive button on the front. You have 4 feet that raise it very slightly
off the countertop and then a neat lid on the top for accessing the inner tank.
It costs around £70or $100, which isn’t cheap but
not too bad if you consider the long period of time you might use this for.
According to the manufacturers website
The Dental pod uses high-frequency 42,000 hz ultrasonic waves to
vibrate the solution and produce millions of nano-scale bubbles.
These bubbles rapidly expand and collapse, releasing a large amount of energy,
continuously scouring and smashing the grime,
bacteria and plaque while being non abrasive to your dental appliance.
This action, called ‘cavitation’ occurs on average 4000 times per second,
so all surfaces and gaps are continuously cleaned
leading to a short but thorough cleaning cycle and a wonderful clean appliance.
All you have to do is fill the little pod with somewhere between 100 and 150ml of water,
and preferably a sterilising tablet. You put your aligners or retainers in, power it on and leave
it to run through it’s cycle. 5 minutes later, the results should be sparklingly clear braces.
Unfortunately, first time using it, I couldn’t say I could tell any difference.
On screen now you will see some before and after images.
Although it didn’t actually look any cleaner, it might well have had less bacteria on it.
It felt as fresh as it would had I been using my regular cleaning solution,
so the tablets and how they work seem to be comparable in that respect.
This isn’t some scientific test or trial of this unit. I have just tried
it at home like you might. Which is why I was a bit disappointed.
My retainers were not as discoloured as the coffee stained aligners shown in the
promotional video, yet the results were far from what was expected.
Perhaps the fact that I have already worn the retainer for so long is the issue here. The
discolouration, staining and grime on the material is essentially baked in.
In fact, the instructions do suggest that older appliances such as mine
usually take 2 weeks of use to look new again.
So, 2 weeks of repeated use and the results were, only a bit better.
I’m going to say maybe a 30 percent improvement, if I am being generous.
They certainly don’t look new or as clear as I would have hoped. It’s a real shame.
Perhaps if I used this from the very first day
I begun wearing the retainer the results would have been different?
Ultrasonic cleaning is commonly used in dentistry,
it is a proven approach. So why isn’t it working here?
I like the design of the pod and I like the concept,
but having used it for a few weeks I can’t say it was definitely worth the investment.
For those in the UK, it is also a little annoying that you can’t actually use this in your bathroom.
This is because it is powered by a removable 3 pin UK plug. And of course, in a bathroom the
only power socket you might have is a 2 pin shaver socket. There is no way of connecting this to it.
If you are in the USA, this isn’t an issue. The power adapter supplied is different.
I like the concept and what this is supposed to do. I don’t think you have a lot to lose if you
did buy this and use this with new braces etc, but I don’t think you should expect miracles.
Potentially the tried and tested brushing with water and a soak in
a specialist cleaner is just as good. It is certainly more cost effective.
If you do want to learn more and perhaps buy the denta pod for yourself,
there are links in the video description.