Mouthguards are a great way to protect your teeth from injury when you play sports, ride bike or do other activities. It is not important what sport you or your child is playing, you require a mouthguard to protect you from dental injuries at all times during a sport. From hockey to football, and even baseball, it protects your teeth.

If you regularly use a mouthguard to protect yourself from injuries during sports, you are required to know how to keep it clean. Being familiar with how to keep a mouthguard clean is another way to protect your mouth. Although mouthguards are great, without the correct care, they can become breeding spots for all kinds of bacteria.

If you’re not confident of the correct ways to clean your mouthguard, then you’ll need to keep reading below. There are various ways you can make sure to keep your mouthguard clean with a few excess tips as well!

Do it every morning

Each morning before putting on your mouthguard, you are required to clean it. You should also wipe it off after every use as well. After wiping it, you are required to clean it in water to eliminate any cleaner leftover.

You can then move it so that it is desiccated, or you can utilize a towel and tap it dry. Once you’ve dried it off, you can then save it until your next use.

Having a daily plan for cleaning your mouthguard prevents bacteria and mould from growing on it. By doing so, you can prevent your it from having a bad smell. Stick to a good routine and you can anticipate your mouthguard to last for quite some time.

However, having a morning rinsing plan means knowing precisely what to rinse your mouthguard with and how to clean it.

Various methods to clean a mouthguard

There are a few various methods through which you can rinse your mouthguard. The great advice which can be given is to test a few various cleaning ways and cling to the one that acts best for you.

Hydrogen peroxide is a wonderful method to rinse many things around the house. Your mouthguard just occurs to be one more thing to add to the list. When utilizing hydrogen peroxide to rinse it, make sure to utilize 3% hydrogen peroxide.

Clean your mouthguard with the hydrogen peroxide for about 10 minutes. You can also drench it in hydrogen peroxide as well. When completed, dry it off and save it.

Soap and water

There’s nothing as effective as the mixture of soap and water. It sometimes escapes our memory to recall how easy, yet efficacious cleaning things with soap and warm water is. When utilizing the soap and water approach, bear in mind to use anti-bacterial soap.

You would assume that all soap by now should be anti-bacterial, but that just isn’t the case. Therefore, make sure to have a look at the kind of soap you’re using before rinsing. Any other soap won’t remove those annoying bacteria as you are required to do.

A toothbrush

A toothbrush is another usual cleaning tool that is sometimes ignored. How much simpler can it be to rinse your mouthguard other than utilizing your toothpaste and toothbrush?

When employing a toothbrush and toothpaste to rinse it with, you are required to make sure that the toothbrush is a soft-bristled one and that your toothpaste is mild. Brush your mouthguard and then rinse it good and dry before saving it.

Mouthguard cleaners

If you would like to receive something fancy, there are mouthguard cleaners available in pharmacies. These cleaners are non-alcohol based and will rinse it with an easy soak. After drenching, you’ll tap it dry and save it.

Storing it

Storing your mouthguard might require a bit more work than you expected, but it’s nothing dramatic. How often have you discovered yourself putting your mouthguard inside your sports bag? This is what you don’t want to do.

When you’ve rinsed it and are prepared to store it until its next use, you are required to make sure that you’ve dried it totally, and then store it in a ventilated place.

Keep away from pets

If you have a pet, then you should be careful. Your pet can be close to public regions and properties within your home but keep them away from your mouthguard. A touch on it by your pet can lead to the transmission of bacteria or germs.

Brush instantly after use

Once you are conducted with cleaning and rinsing, then it is rational to brush the mouthguard utilizing a separate toothbrush. During the brushing process, toothpaste isn’t needed. Instead, you can replace toothpaste with a cleanser.

Dehydrate & put on a desiccated surface

After drenching and cleaning the mouthguard, dehydrate it totally before placing it into its case. The total dehydration will forbid bacteria growth and germ dangling around the tool. The mouthguard requires to be held on a dry surface that is devoid of dust.

Deep cleaning monthly

Here, as you deal with your toothbrush, you can transmit the same care to your mouthguard as well. Utilize an exact combination of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Put deeply it into the distilled vinegar for about 30 minutes. Once it’s done, clean it and let it dry completely. Institutionalize the habit of deep cleaning your mouthguard once every month.

What is forbidden?

There are a few things that you are required to do in regards to your mouthguard, but what about the things that are forbidden?

For one, you should never put your mouthguard in warm water to clean it. Sure, boiling methods are great ways to slay all of those sordid germs, but boiling it is a mistake. If you boil your mouthguard, the shape of it will alter, and you’ll be required to have it reshaped to your mouth. Moreover, germs grow better in warmer environments.

General tips

Some other general tips for preserving your mouthguard clean are to leave it in your mouth and don’t continuously touch it with your fingers. The more you utilize your hands to touch it or eliminate it and put it back in your mouth, the better chance it has to breed bacteria.

If you are required to lift the mouthguard every time you need to either eat or drink, then you should take into account having one custom-made to suit your mouth completely.