Do you know how to properly clean your oral device? I didn’t and I’m married to a dentist.
We had a patient stop in our office the other day asking how to clean her TAP 3 sleep apnea device. She said it was starting to smell and taste bad after wearing it nightly for a few months. It’s easy to sympathize – those qualities are not incentives to wear the device every night. One staff member suggested a denture cleaner and the patient said she remembered being cautioned against that. So what is the answer?
I have a splint I wear at night to treat my TMJ pain. I’ve worn it for years. I usually just rinse my splint with water in the morning and let it air dry. About every week or so, I’ve used my toothbrush, with a little left over sudsy toothpaste on it, to gently brush my splint in the morning. I found out today that toothpaste can be abrasive when used to clean oral devices. Again, what is the answer to a clean and deodorized oral device?
A few minutes of intense staff discussion in our lunchroom followed this question, then another staff member jumped on the internet, went to the website for the TAP 3 Elite, and found instructions on proper care for the device. Thank goodness for the internet!
Cleaning directions, straight from the TAP 3 Elite website.
After our conversation at work today, I will admit I did take a little sniff of my splint when I got home. It wasn’t terrible, but I felt compelled to clean it, just the same.
The following instructions are for cleaning a TAP 3 Elite, an oral device used to treat sleep apnea, although we believe this would be a safe method to clean any oral device such as a splint or night guard, mouth guard, orthodontic retainer, or partial or full denture.
I’ll use my splint to show you how to properly keep your oral device clean and deodorized:
- Use a soft toothbrush dedicated just for this task, cool water and an antibacterial liquid soap to thoroughly clean the device each morning. I know it sounds weird to use hand soap on your oral device, but I tried it and I feel it cleaned my splint really well. My biggest fear was tasting the soap when I put my splint back in my mouth, but I made sure to rinse it thoroughly and I didn’t taste the soap. Win! The cool water is also important, as you don’t want to damage or distort the device with hot water.
- Let your oral device thoroughly air dry before placing it in the storage container or case. If your oral device isn’t completely dry, just leave the top of the case open during the day or leave it in a safe place. I usually keep mine on the bathroom countertop or on my nightstand during the day.
- Every two weeks, disinfect your appliance by soaking it in a solution of half mouthwash, half water for only 10-15 minutes, then thoroughly rinse it with cool water. You can substitute a denture cleanser for the mouthwash, but again only soak the appliance for 10-15 minutes. Timing is key here, folks. You could potentially damage your device if it is left in the cleaning solution for too long. I left my splint in the mouthwash solution for 10 minutes and it came out looking and tasting fresh and clean.
Remember: You should always put your oral appliance into a clean mouth. The bacteria on your splint can’t form there on its own. Brush and floss your teeth before wearing your oral appliance each day or night. These actions will help keep your appliance, your mouth and your teeth cleaner.
I do feel a little silly for not properly cleaning my splint all these years. Although I was keeping it pretty clean with sudsy toothpaste, I was potentially damaging it with the abrasive toothpaste. I’m excited to sleep with a clean and fresh-smelling splint tonight. Sweet dreams, everyone!
Yay! My splint is fresh and clean!
Written and submitted by Stephanie Jugovich, staff member at Pike Lake Dental Center and faithful nighttime splint wearer
Our office recently tested out a new 3D camera/scanner. We had a lunch and learn meeting with the scanner’s salesman where we learned about the benefits and potential of the machine. We were able to test it out on each other and get a good feel for the product. It wasn’t a difficult decision to purchase the equipment. The scanner just arrived a few weeks ago and we’ve already been putting it to good use!
This scanner also helps us continue to eliminate the gooey impression material for most procedures. We can take digital impressions to send to dental labs for splints, crowns, bridges, surgical guides, Invisalign and more. We can also send those same scans to our own CEREC and 3D printer to create crowns, bridges, splints, implants, surgical guides, study models, and more. I feel the possibilities are endless!
A digital scan, kept on file, can be reused for multiple purposes. Perhaps we scanned you in May for a baseline scan. In August you find you need a splint to help cure nighttime clenching. We can use the same scan. In October, you break a tooth and need a crown. Yes, we can use the same scan.
If you suspect you or a loved one suffer from sleep apnea, you’ve probably also given some thought to a traditional sleep study to be officially diagnosed. Going to a sleep study clinic for an overnight, with all those wires attached to you, doesn’t probably sound like a very fun night out. What if there was another option for an accurate sleep study? What if you could have a sleep study taken while sleeping in your own bed, with just this little machine attached to your chest, wrist and first finger? Sounds appealing, right?
The WatchPAT is a small device that is able to monitor a patient’s sleep and confirm whether or not he or she suffers from sleep apnea. To gain this diagnosis, the WatchPAT monitors sleep time, snoring, restless sleep, each stage of sleep (REM, deep and light), sleep position, and the oxygen in the blood. It’s pretty complex for as little as it is!
The best part: You can do this sleep study right in your own home, in the comfort of your own bed! We believe it’s a more accurate study because your sleep is more natural in your own comfortable surroundings.
Oftentimes, patients are surprised by the sleep study results. Even more often, they are surprised by the severity of their results. We have seen patients who have been misdiagnosed by others, or they haven’t felt the symptoms they present are severe enough to warrant sharing them with their healthcare professionals.
My 12 year old daughter started her journey with braces in March of 2017. Since then, she’s had to learn how to take care of her teeth a little differently than she did before starting orthodontia. Of my three kids, Katie is the child who thrives on routine the most. She packs her school backpack exactly the same way every day. She keeps her bedroom and locker orderly. She arranges her pillows “just so” on her bed each night. So when she started ortho, I expected her to continue with her regular brushing routine, which she did.
Then, at one of our first monthly return visits with her orthodontist, who also happens to be a dear family friend, I put both Katie and Dr. Landrigan on the spot.
We drove straight to my husband’s dental office and picked up a snazzy, new Oral-B electric toothbrush for Katie. It was something new and fun and it was able to connect to her cell phone via Bluetooth. It was cool! The best part: her older siblings didn’t have this snazzy Oral-B electric toothbrush. Katie unpacked the box immediately when we got home, downloaded the Oral-B app onto her phone, set up the Bluetooth connection and started brushing her teeth. Bam! Victory!
The electric toothbrush has been a game changer for Katie’s over all oral hygiene, especially while she’s in ortho. I noticed a difference in her teeth and smile almost immediately. Her teeth actually looked clean. There was no visible buildup of plaque and her teeth were actually shiny. What a difference! She is now able to brush her teeth much more thoroughly, getting in between and around every bracket, even in those hard to reach areas. I even feel her teeth stay cleaner longer with the new toothbrush.
Written and submitted by Stephanie Jugovich, mother of three and staff member at Pike Lake Dental Center
We’ve been talking a lot about our CEREC lately both in the office and on Facebook. CEREC is an acronym for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics or CEramic REConstruction. This two part system has revolutionized crowns and bridges in our office. Just this week, we had a technician out to perform some routine service our milling unit. He told us we had over 49,000 minutes on this machine. In 11 years, that’s a lot of run time!
No more gooey impressions! Before, we would take impressions with the gooey impression material two times during a crown or bridge prep and send them off to the dental lab to create the crown or bridge for us. Now, impressions are made digitally with this machine, the CEREC acquisition unit. Not only can we take digital impressions for crowns and bridges with this machine – we can take impressions for dental implants, Invisalign treatment plans, night guards or splints, surgical guides, and even whitening kits. Digital impressions are so much easier and much more precise than the old style gooey impressions. Plus, we keep the scanned file in the patient’s digital chart, so we are able to refer back to it if it’s ever needed.
Another cool bonus about the CEREC is you, as a patient, can watch your new crown being made from start to finish. The impression and design process is done right in the operatory with you. Once we send the file to the milling unit, you can watch the tooth progress. This isn’t top secret science, we want you to be involved! There aren’t many times a person can say they watched a tooth, especially their own, being created right before their eyes.
We can also keep a close eye on quality control. Sometimes we would get a crown back from the lab and it wouldn’t fit well or it was the wrong shade. In those instances, it usually meant taking impressions again and sending the crown back to the lab. It also usually meant having the patient come back to our office again in another two weeks. Not so anymore. If something is wrong with the crown, we can quickly mill another one. We make sure every crown is made to our extremely high standards. We even use our skills to custom shade the crowns to get the perfect shade for each unique patient.
I’d be lying if I told you we don’t like playing with the technology, too. It gives us great satisfaction to know we have created something strong, beautiful and durable from start to finish right here inside our office. Being able to learn and improve upon all aspects of the crown process from creation to completion, we have honed our skills over the past eleven years and can produce a consistent, high-quality product with extremely high customer satisfaction. We are pretty proud of that fact.
In hindsight, we are extremely happy we invested in our CEREC many years ago. We have made some updates with software and cameras over the years and have taken care of it with routine maintenance and service. We have loved this machine and our patients love it too. With this machine, we are utilizing the latest and best technology to ensure our patients are receiving the best care available. Insist on the best – you’re worth it!
I talk
seemed to get more sprinkled all over the sink than I did on my toothbrush, so I adjusted my tactic. I tapped off the excess water from my brush and dipped the bristles into the powder. Then I gently began to brush my teeth.
face, all over the sink and the counter, even the floor. A damp cloth was all I needed to wipe everything down. The powder didn’t stain anything.
All in all, I was glad I tried the charcoal powder. It had intrigued me and I think it would have always fallen into my “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda” category if I hadn’t given it a try. Would I recommend it? Sure. Just because I didn’t notice a change in my tooth shade, doesn’t mean the next person won’t. It was fun. It’s something different. It’s a fad. I’ll stick with my tried and true professional whitening kit. 
