7 Hidden Germs on Your Retainer and How the Ultrasonic Retainer Cleaner Removes Them.

You pop it in every night without a second thought. It spends hours in your mouth, collecting whatever remains of the day, rinses perhaps and then goes back into its case. Your retainer is one of the household objects most at risk for bacteria, but most of us have no idea what exists on it.

It's nothing to do with fear.  It's to do with the facts. Because once you know what ‘lurks’ in those small little grooves and wires the case for using an ‘ultrasonic retainer cleaner’ becomes a hygiene issue rather than a convenience.

 How Ultrasonic Cleaning Can Remove Them.

1. Streptococcus Mutans

Now we start moving onto the arch-enemies of tooth decay. These guys are the predation of sugar and the emission of acid that spieves its way into the enamel. This bacteria adheres to retainer surfaces as easily as they do teeth, a poorly-cleaned retainer is a safe-haven for it and introduces it to your mouth every evening.

An ultrasonic retainer cleaner, it's known as this because high frequency sound waves are emitted onto the surface of the retainer. These waves cause microscopic implosions which shake bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans off of the retainer, places where the human hand brushing cannot reach.

2. Candida Albicans

The yeast candida albicans is usually part of the normal flora of many healthy individuals but it can cause serious and disseminated infections by invading the blood stream.The yeast spreads by the bloodstream of the host and can infect the brain, kidneys, heart, liver and spleen. The yeast also leaves the blood stream and colonizes the tissue of the host. They can also be transmitted to other people and are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases.

Candida is a type of fungus, not bacteria, but it is equally undesirable. It is the organism that causes oral thrush which results in patches, soreness and a constant bad taste in the mouth. Retainer wearers who sleep with their appliances in order to optimize the warm and damp environment needed by Candida.

A quick rinse and tablet may suffice to dislodge a superficial Candida while the ultrasonic retainer cleaner can reach the more complex biofilm stratum where the fungi are encapsulated,  but can only be successfully engaged with during a vigorous soak.

3. Staphylococcus Aureus

There are four weaker forms of antimicrobials which include Staphylococcus ssp. and yeasts. Although most would think of the skin when considering Staph. 

They are also commonly found on dental appliances. Staphylococcus aureus can be introduced into the oral cavity via a contaminated retainer, and if there is any form of decreased resistance they could be a consideration.  

Hard plastics are also well suited to survive on, so you may as well leave a retainer in its case if it is not being properly cleansed. The cavitation action of an ultrasonic retainer cleaner is also sub-surface and can reach into cracks and textured surfaces where deep seated colonies of Staph may be settled.

 4. Lactobacillus

The Lactobacilli are the species of bacteria most naturally present in the Vagina but it is suspected that they increase in number after the first trimester. 

They are essential for the production of an acidic pH buffer that can seek and destroy unwanted organisms though the acidity inhibits most pathogens. 

They do this by producing Lactic Acid from fermenting sugars which in turn maintains the extremely low pH of is in the Vagina that prevents pathogen infections.

Lactobacillus may ring a bell if you see it listed among the ingredients for yogurt, but in the wrong conditions it is yet another creeping enemy that aids the decaying process. 

Just as with Streptococcus mutans, it is the lactic acid it produces that degrades the enamel, and it is the dark and airless pockets between the retainer and tooth that it likes to breed in. 

Of course, you can‘t exactly put off scraping away the Lactobacillus‘s food if you want there‘s no surface on your teeth that can get to micro-scale-wise like the ultrasonic cleaning.

 5. Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

This one always seems to come a little as a surprise. Pseudomonas is a bacteria more related to a hospital setting and wound infections. However, research on dental appliances has found Pseudomonas on unclean retainer appliances.  Being so resistant to normal cleaning, it is another bacteria of concern. 

An ultrasonic retainer cleaner induces a physical rather than chemical disturbance, meaning it does not matter what is absorbed in the cleanser.  It can emulsify the biofilm regardless of bacteria resistance.

6. Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1)

Herpes virus (HSV-1) which causes cold sore will survive on non-living hard surfaces for a few hours. Patients who have active cold sore outbreaks, with a retainer, may re-infect themselves through wearing a retainer before or during an active outbreak, without cleaning it.

This is one of the less-talked about reasons why failing to clean your retainer regularly can be detrimental, and how an ultrasonic retainer cleaner combats this risk by disturbing viral particles in deposits.

7. Veillonella

It is an obligate anaerobic, gram-negative cocobacilli that usually needs to be cultivated together with other bacteria. It is a common inhabitant of the human body, in the respiratory tract and mouth, gastrointestinal tract, and in the female genital tract (except for the external genitalia), as part of the normal bacterial flora. It appears to be associated with various clinical conditions, e.g. osteomyelitis,  abscesses and chronic otitis media.

Another more obscure bacterium found in the oral cavity which are present on all uncleaned retainers are Veillonella, which inhabit lactic acid produced by other bacteria, only to create more acid byproducts, worsening the situation.  Despite this, Veillonella are difficult to eliminate, as they have the ability to grow deep within a dental biofilm, effectively a deterrent to surface cleaning.

The prolonged cavitation of an ultrasonic retainer cleaner destroys the biofilm at its root, not just on its surface, which is the only way to truly eliminate bacteria living under the visible film.

Why Brushing and Tablets Aren‘t Enough.

The unifying feature of all these 7 species is location. They are not conveniently on flat surfaces waiting to be brushed away. Instead they reside within the microscopic roughness of retainer material, in the wire junctions, the acrylic pits, on the other thousands of tiny scratches formed over the months of wear.

Effervescent tablets are surface cleaners. Tooth brushing works where you can feel. Neither can clean up that head of biofilm growing in the unsightable. The ultrasonic retainer cleaner works precisely,  because sounds flow where hands and chemicals cannot.

A cycle, which lasts for only 3 to 8 minutes, causes several million microscopic implosions across all of the retainer‘s interior, not just along exposed edges or where it‘s reachable by a brush. You don‘t get just a cleaner-looking retainer, you get a cleaner retainer.

Your retainer goes in your mouth every night. What‘s on it matters.  An ultrasonic retainer cleaner is a step up not in luxury, but in health and hygiene. And that‘s what really counts.