THANKS to the rise of Invisalign and other teeth straightening services, more people than ever are wearing aligners and retainers on the day-to-day.
But, as everyone who has worn clear aligners knows, one of the worst parts about them is how easily they mark and stain.
- Sonic Spa Pro, £79 from Amazon - buy here
Aside from feeling a bit grubby, having discoloured aligners makes your teeth look worse for wear, which defeats the point of getting clear aligners in the first place!
Speaking from experience, even if you use special cleaning tablets and brushes on your retainers regularly, its still hard to restore their clarity and shine.
Enter the Sonic Spa Pro.
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Sonic Spa Pro Review
Pros: Effective cleaning, good looking, easy to use, long-term cost effective vs using cleaning tablets
Cons: Noisy, expensive upfront
Rating: 4/5
The Sonic Spa Pro is a cleaning device that uses 43,000Hz Ultrasonic waves (i.e. it noisily vibrates) to clean your dental accessories, alongside employing U.V-C light to ensure everything is kept bacteria-free.
I was a bit sceptical about the device at first, but after one use on my Invisalign retainers, I could see that the Sonic Spa Pro had managed to get them cleaner than I'd managed with tablets and a brush.
The first time I removed them from the machine, they were clear and almost like-new.
It's easy to use, too. All you've got to do is add some water to the tray, put your retainers in, push a button and it's away.
The Sonic Spa Pro has got two settings: 'normal', which takes three minutes and 'deep clean', which takes five.
In testing, I opted for 'deep clean' as I tended to put my retainers in when I woke up and then forget about them until the evening when I rinsed them off and used them again.
Because it uses U.V-C light, the Sonic Spa Pro should also do a decent job of disinfecting your dental accessories (it's not something I'm worried about, I just want my retainers to not look grubby!) and is also designed for use on dentures, mouth guards, toothbrush heads and more.
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As an added perk, the device isn't bad to look at it; it happily lives on the end of my dresser and doesn't look out of place in a bedroom.
- Sonic Spa Pro, £79 from Amazon - buy here
In terms of downsides, there's a couple of things to address with the Sonic Spa Pro.
First off, it's quite noisy and you'd definitely prefer to not be in the room when it's working.
Secondly, at the time of writing it costs £79, which is a bit pricey when you can just buy 96 sterilising tablets for under a tenner.
That said, over a long enough time period, you'd end up saving money over repeatedly buying cleaning tablets.
Considering that indefinitely wearing night time retainers after completing Invisalign is highly recommended, you might end up saving sooner than you think.
Plus, popping your retainers in the device and letting it do its work is far less faff than using cleaning tablets.
All-in-all, I'm a fan of the Sonic Spa Pro. It quickly cleans my retainers more effectively than I managed with tablets and brushes and its a nice-looking bathroom accessory.
- Sonic Spa Pro, £79 from Amazon - buy here