The Clever Cleaning Gem That Does My Most Annoying Morning Routine Task for Me

After four long years of braces, I wear my retainer religiously. I refuse to let all of that pain go to waste, so wearing my retainer every night has become second nature. As a result, cleaning it every morning has become ingrained into my routine, too. I have a separate toothbrush for my retainer, and I’ll alternate back and forth between scrubbing it and letting it soak in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water.

As often as I wear it, sometimes it doesn’t feel as clean as it should be, and I haven’t replaced it in a few years, so it does look as clear and pristine as it used to. Then, a few months ago, my grandma sent me something I’d never heard of before: an ultrasonic retainer cleaner. At first, I was skeptical of the gadget — called the Zima Dental Pod — but it only took a few uses for me to change my tune. And after speaking with a dentist about all of its benefits, there’s no way I’m ever going back to washing my retainer by hand.

The small container uses high-frequency, 42,000-hertz ultrasonic waves to get rid of the grime on your retainer, aligner, mouth guard, or dentures, even removing stains and plaque buildup. It doesn’t wear down your retainer — in fact, it’s less abrasive than using a toothbrush on it, according to Dr. Ambika Amini, a general dentist based in Yorkshire, England, and the cofounder of My Private Dentist. 

The pod also takes less time out of your morning or nighttime routine. Fill the inside with water, place your dental appliance inside of it, press the button, and let it do its thing for five minutes. A pack of six dental tablets come with your pod, which will result in a deeper clean. You can also drop in any other sort of retainer cleaner or denture tablet to get the same effect. And finally, Zima also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee and a yearlong warranty on the Dental Pod.

After my grandma gave me the Dental Pod, I talked to Amini to get her take. “Originally, we would recommend brushing them [with] a soft toothbrush and hand soap or body soap, but over time, you can get little grooves in the retainers and that can harbor bacteria and odors,” Amini says, adding that the retainer then needs replacing more often if that’s your cleaning method.

According to Amini, keeping your retainer superclean is still key to making it last as long as possible — which is where the less-aggressive alternative of an ultrasonic cleaner comes in. She says it’s similar to the cleaning techniques used in the dental practice, giving your appliance a “really hygienic, thorough disinfection.” 

Especially if you start taking care of your retainer with a dental pod from the get-go, she says it stays pristine for longer, allowing you to squeeze more life out of it.  If you don’t start using a pod for your retainer from day one, it’s “less easy to get them looking new again.” Regardless, you can definitely take advantage of its sanitizing benefits if your retainer isn’t brand-new.

After seeing plenty of not-so-clean and worn retainers in her practice, Amini recommends the Zima’s model in particular to her patients. She even keeps one of her own at her bedside, and her husband and kids use it as well. She recently upgraded to the Pro version, but relied on the original for a couple of years.

“I use them for retainers, but you can use them for whitening trays [and] you can use them for toothbrush heads,” she notes. “Any sort of oral appliance you have in your house, you can use the pod for, and it will just get off the grime. It completely disinfects them without causing any damage.”

When I spoke to Amini, I’d already been using the pod since January — and I can’t believe I went without it for as long as I did. I’ve had my current retainer since my braces came off in 2019, so it’s definitely seen better days, with a bit of plaque on the edges and slight cloudiness. A toothbrush and cleaning tablets just didn’t leave it feeling truly fresh, and they weren’t doing anything to make it look newer.

Imagine my surprise when, after a few weeks, I started noticing my retainer looking clearer than ever before. The buildup isn’t completely gone, but the Zima Pod has chipped away at it in a way that my toothbrush never did. My favorite part is that it does all of that and requires no effort on my part, aside from filling the tank with water, plugging it in, and dumping out the water when the cycle is finished. There’s no residue or film left behind.

Even though it feels clean without it, sometimes I’ll pop a little cleaning tablet in for freshness, which Amini also recommends doing at least once a week. Since I ran out of the Zima-provided tablets, I started using the more budget-friendly Retainer Brite ones at Amini’s recommendation. “You can’t really tell any physical difference to be honest, but with the tablets it just feels and tastes a bit fresher and mintier,” she says.

It’s also compact on my countertop and requires less upkeep than my old retainer case, which always seemed to get gross too fast. (I’ve ditched my case altogether, and when I travel, I’m planning on taking the pod with me.) Like Amini points out, the pod acts as a reminder and incentive to wear your retainer, aligner, or mouth guard.

If the chore of brushing your retainer was keeping you from wearing it as often as you should, the ease of the pod helps hugely. I can just let it run while I do the rest of my morning routine, and it’s ready right away when I go to sleep at night. It’s definitely the gift that keeps on giving!

Buy: Zima Dental Pod, $99.99