Do Dental Pods Really Work? Comparing Different Aligner Cleaning Methods (2026) - Dr. Jack Pinnar-Smith

Keeping your mouth clean is really important, especially if you wear aligners or other kinds of orthodontic appliances. Aligners are very hard to clean, meaning that microorganisms grow quickly on their surface. These microorganisms can cause hygiene issues, bad breath and appliance deterioration.

People clean their aligners in many different ways and it's still being studied which method is the most effective. A common question among aligner patients  is: "Do Dental pods really work in keeping aligners clean?". To address this, we conducted a detailed experiment comparing five different aligner cleaning techniques. A poster of the study can be found a here but a short summary can be read below:

Aim of the Study: Our research aimed to compare how five different cleaning methods remove oral fungus and biofilm from orthodontic aligners.

Methods: We contaminated 120 orthodontic aligners with oral fungus. These aligners underwent various cleaning treatments, such as rinsing with water, manual brushing, using sterilizing tablets, and cleaning with both a generic ultrasonic cleaner and the Dental pod. The amount of oral fungus after each cleaning method was then recorded.

Findings: The study revealed that the Dental pod was significantly more effective, removing at least 97.5% more oral fungus than other methods tested. This matches the results from a similar study conducted by a University in Italy. This scientific data clearly shows that Dental pods ‘really work’.