In a broad spectrum of society, people are wearing dental appliances for several hours daily. The surfaces of the dental appliances increase the area in the warm and humid oral cavity to facilitate the reproduction of not only viruses but also bacteria, spores and fungi. Erroneous or limited possibilities for cleaning the dental appliances by the users increases the reintroduction of germs and strains the immune system. Furthermore, the likelihood of spreading the disease with others via smear infection when touching the device is increased. Worldwide pandemics as influenza, H1N1 and COVID-19, are occurring more frequently than ever before and are causing a high impact on people’s health and quality of life. This is an additional challenge for the immune system. A technology called ultraviolet germicidal irradiation may decontaminate the dental appliances fully through emitting UVC rays on the appliance in a daily routine which does not need additional time or efforts.
In my project CLEANR, I explored the system design of a functional sample including hardware, security mechanism and software of a dental storage device that is using a low power UVC LED. Furthermore, I investigated the effectiveness of the disinfection in a test series. The design included smart Bluetooth functionality allowing patients to track the duration the appliance was worn and find the case when lost.