How to clean a hard mouth guard

For the last few years, dentists have been recommending the use of hard mouth guards to more and more people to treat a variety of difference issues. Mouth guards can be used to ward off TMJ, to curb tooth filing from grinding and even as a replacement for retainers. Hard mouth guards are said to be better than soft ones as they are more ergonomic for your jaw, are longer lasting because they can't be ground down and are less likely to harbor nasty bacteria. Despite the many benefits of soft hard mouth guards, they can be a real doozy to clean.

I know that I personally hated using a soft mouth guard for many years. This is not because it was uncomfortable. It was because I couldn't stand the nightly cleaning regiment and always felt that despite my best efforts, it was left with a foul taste and smell and so I always worried it was loaded with nasty bacteria. Plus, I would grind my teeth so much that I would have to go to the dentist to have a new one fitted at least twice a year.

My favorite part about my new hard mouth guard is that the cleaning process is effortless. All I need to do is buy dissolving denture cleaners. About five minutes before I go to bed, I drop a tablet of Polident or Eferdent into a glass of water containing my mouth guard. If you sit and watch, you can literally see all the grime being pulled off. After the tablet has completely dissolved, I let the mouth guard rest for a minute in the blue solution and then quickly wash it off under running water. Now I can go to bed feeling that my mouth guard is clean, my breath is fresh and my teeth and jaw are protected from nocturnal grinding.