Tag: dentist

Dr. B Dental Solutions Ultrasonic Cleaner

writ­ten 07/08/2023, updat­ed 07/08/2023

What

A per­son­al ultra­son­ic den­tal appli­ance clean­er for night­guards, den­tures, align­ers, retain­ers, and sleep apnea appli­ances. High fre­quen­cy vibra­tion (108Z??? “Z” is not a real fre­quen­cy unit of mea­sure) with auto-shut­off fea­ture, 3 timer set­tings (5, 10, 15 min­utes), and 2 pow­er options (includ­ed 3 AAA or USB A with no charg­ing block).

Dr. B (Lorin Berland, DDS) has pur­port­ed­ly authored over 100 book, arti­cles, and videos on clin­i­cal den­tistry and edu­a­tion.

Cost

$29.95 + tax on Ama­zon

Test

Product

Half-screw lid
Must sup­ply own pow­er sup­ply
3 AAA bat­ter­ies after unscrew­ing it
Com­par­a­tive size with night­guard

Use

I used Poli­den­t’s tablets
Poli­den­t’s fizz
5 min­utes have passed
How it looks when it’s work­ing
Tak­ing it out
Most of the dots are Poli­dent, but you can see some debris from the NG

Before and After

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

Verdict

Rec­om­mend­ed: Yes, with reser­va­tions

Pros: Com­pact, well-made, nice half-screw cap, sim­ple

Cons: Zero tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion, made-up fre­quen­cy num­bers in Ama­zon descrip­tion and absent on offi­cial web­site,

You be the judge in the pic­tures. The “after” pho­tos are notice­ably whiter and show less tar­tar. How­ev­er, it’s not 100% clean. While the clean­er was work­ing, I felt as if it was­n’t as strong as I’d like it to be. The ones in my office sound and look strong when in use. It clear­ly works and pos­si­bly with repeat­ed use it would fur­ther clean my night­guard, but how much of that is just the tablet and how much is the ultra­son­ic prod­uct, itself? I have not done a test for just those Poli­dent retain­er tablets. My biggest prob­lem with the device is the over­all lack of infor­ma­tion. You can look up 108Z if you want on the inter­net, but noth­ing in the fre­quen­cy world has that unit of mea­sure. Is it made up? It’s Hz. Fre­quen­cy is mea­sured in Hz. The prod­uct also did not come with book­let, nor does it offer one any­where in the Ama­zon list­ing, on the offi­cial web­site nor on a den­tal prod­uct dis­trib­u­tor site. That’s a lit­tle shady, in my opin­ion. Then again, it’s also only $30 where­as a com­pa­ra­ble by iSon­ic runs $50, and it clear­ly does work.

Dis­claimer: I am a Den­tal Hygien­ist by trade and am test­ing these on my own with NO com­pen­sa­tion from any­one

DIY Dental Light with Elastic Headband

Cre­at­ed and updat­ed 2/26/2023

What: Den­tal light worn like a head­lamp with no loupes or safe­ty glass­es or face shield. Den­tal light mount­ed to elas­tic head­band.

Why: For those who don’t have or don’t want to use their loupes plus light. Suit­able for those who wear glass­es. When oper­a­to­ry lights fail. Pow­er out­age. I per­son­al­ly have trou­ble with loupes when I suf­fer from sinus issues (makes me nau­seous), but find I want the light, so this is a workaround to that. Plus, it costs 4x less than my loupes + light.

Sup­plies: Den­tal Light sys­tem (with bat­tery pack), elas­tic head­lamp strap, mount­ing kit (came with sys­tem), drill, drill bit, ruler, clamps, safe­ty glass­es, mark­er, cord ties (opt)

Cost: Light sys­tem ($595) + head­lamp strap and brack­et ($11.70) = $606.70

Time: 30 min­utes

*Note: Not intend­ed for dogs!*
*But they do look cute wear­ing it!!*

Process

  • Acquire sup­plies
And safe­ty glass­es!
Mount­ing kit/hardware
Elas­tic, adjustable head­lamp band with plas­tic brack­et
Back­side. It’s decent­ly thin
Used a 5⁄64″ bit

  • Mea­sure and mark drill holes. Be aware that if there are nuts to secure the screws, then to leave enough room on the oppo­site side for them
Marked mid­point and holes
Dry test. Looks good

  • Clamp, wear safe­ty glass­es, and then drill (be care­ful, I man­aged to make mine lop­sided)
Don’t clamp too tight that it breaks
Twist­ed the bit in to help the drill find foot­ing and not wan­der
It’s drilling time!
One down!
Uhhhh…how’d it get lop­sided…
Oh well. Tight­en­ing the screws
Nice
Oops…didn’t take into account the nuts. Would drill low­er next time.
Sol­id in there, even with­out the nuts
Ready
Set
Boom!

  • Option­al: Use cord orga­niz­ing ties to secure the cord to the side of the elas­tic head­band
Although the light comes with a clip for your clothes, a sec­ond one in the back works well to keep the cord out of the way

  • Done! Test it out!
Unwill­ing demo patient
My loupes with light is bet­ter, but also costs 4x as much.
It’s pret­ty com­fort­able. Made sure that the fuzzy side of the cable ties faced my skin