My Granddaughter Stopped Climbing Into My Lap, and the Reason Was Hiding in the Dentures I Cleaned Every Single Night

I never would have found it without a dentist's honest answer and 5 minutes with plain water.

Joanne Pruitt, 68

Retired school librarian · Dayton, OH · Posted October 2026

5-min read

A person holds a set of dentures over a bathroom sink, with their reflection in the mirror.

My daughter Megan told me to post this.

I said no. Too personal. (It's about my mouth, for crying out loud.)

She said, “Mom, nobody told you 9 years ago. Somebody out there needs to hear it.”

She's right. So here I am.
I've worn dentures for 9 years. I cleaned them every single night. Never missed once.
I thought that meant they were clean.

Then one Sunday in April, my granddaughter did something she'd never done before.

Every Sunday for 3 years, Lily burst through my front door and ran straight to my big green chair. Straight into my lap.
She'd tuck her head under my chin and say, “Grandma, read me the bear book!”
That Sunday, she came running... and stopped.

About an arm's length away.

Her nose did a little wrinkle. The one she does at broccoli. It lasted one second.
Then she smiled, said “Hi, Grandma,” and sat down on the rug.
I thought it was something she ate.

She did it again the following Sunday. Then the Sunday after that.

Lily Wasn't the First, but She Was the First I Couldn't Explain Away

Looking back, it had been happening for a while.

At my Thursday book club, the chair beside me was always the last one taken. My friend Carol started hugging me with just one arm.

At church, people said hello from a step farther back than they used to.
I had an answer for everything. People are busy. I'm getting older. I'm quieter than I used to be.

But a 6-year-old doesn't do polite. Lily just did what her nose told her.

The Photo I Couldn't Stop Looking At

In June, Lily turned 6. Megan sent me the party pictures that night.
I scrolled slowly. Lily blowing out candles. Lily hanging off her dad's neck.
Then the group shot. Everybody squeezed onto the couch, shoulder to shoulder, Lily in the middle.
And me, on the end. A foot of empty couch right beside me.

I kept flipping. Same empty spot in every picture.

A hand holds a smartphone displaying a composite family photo on a couch with balloons in the background.

I don't cry easily. (I was a school librarian for 31 years. I've shushed a lot of feelings.)

But I sat at my kitchen table at 10 o'clock at night, and I cried over a photo of a couch.

I Couldn't Smell Them. But I Could Taste Them.

The next morning, I did something I'd never done in 9 years. I held my dentures up to my nose.

Nothing. No smell at all.

But nothing didn't feel like clean. For years I'd had the same taste in my mouth every morning, like I'd been sucking on a penny.

So I did what I always do when I'm scared. I tried harder.

✕

Tablets every night. Fresh for about an hour. Stale taste by lunch.

✕

The “extra strength” tablets. Same fizz. Same taste.

✕

Scrubbing every morning. My hand got tired. The taste didn't care.

✕

Mints in my purse and my car. I ate them like it was my job.

✕

A sound-wave cleaner I bought online. It worked for a while. Then one day I noticed nothing was happening in the water. The light still came on.

How do you fix a smell you can't smell?
Denture cleaning supplies including tablets, a brush, and an electric cleaner on a wooden table.

The Question I Finally Asked My Dentist

I couldn't figure it out alone. So in August, at my yearly check-up, I asked the one person who would know.

My dentist took my dentures from me and held them up under the light. Before she did anything else, I blurted it out.
A person wearing a blue medical glove holds a set of upper dentures in a dental office.

Me

“Be honest. Do they smell?”

She didn't flinch. She leaned in and sniffed once.

My dentist
“A little. The kind you can't notice yourself. Your nose quits on a smell it lives with every day.”

I thought of Lily's nose wrinkle. The empty chair at book club.

My throat went tight. “Oh,” I said.

She squeezed my arm.

My dentist

“It's not how you clean them. It's the plastic. Up close, it's full of tiny holes and scratches. (Brushing makes more.)”

“Stuff settles in there, and a sticky layer builds up inside. Your tablet kills the germs on top. In most cases, it never gets in there.”

Me

“So how do you get it out?”

My dentist

“We run yours through a sound-wave machine in the back. It shakes that layer loose. We're about to do that with yours.”
“They feel fresh when you leave here, right? Then it wears off in a day or 2?”
It did. I'd noticed it after every visit and never asked why.

My dentist

“You can buy one for home.” She made a face. “Some are junk. I can't say which.”
I sat in my car afterward with both hands on the wheel.

I felt embarrassed for about 10 seconds. Then I felt relief. It had a reason, and it wasn't anything I'd done wrong.

The Night I Went Looking

I couldn't sleep, so I did what any librarian would do. I researched.
I found a Facebook group for denture wearers. After an hour of adhesive complaints, I found a thread that was my whole life in one sentence:
A screenshot of a Facebook post and comments from the group 'Denture Wearers Over 60'.

(I'd been Arlene 2 years ago. Different cleaner. Same story.)

I almost scrolled past. But Gene's comment about the water stuck. So did my dentist's voice. Some are junk.
So I read the NovaPod page like a librarian: skeptically, with a pencil.
Here's what I understood. You fill it with plain tap water, put your dentures in, and press one button.

It sends sound waves through the water, so fast you can't hear them. They make millions of tiny bubbles that pop against everything the water touches, including inside those holes and scratches. That's what shakes the sticky layer loose.

42,000

vibrations every second

99.99%

of bacteria killed (up to)

5 min

then it shuts itself off

After the bubbles, a built-in germ-killing light (UV-C) goes to work on what's left. The page says it kills up to 99.99% of the bacteria.

What got me to order was the 30-day full refund. Before I did, I read reviews until midnight. These stuck with me:

A woman in a blue shirt sits at a kitchen table with mints and a purse on it.A man in a bathroom holds a clear dental night guard while looking at it.A customer review showing an older couple smiling happily at each other on a couch.

I ordered at 12:14 a.m. (Nobody makes good decisions at 12:14 a.m. We'll see.)

Curious what I read that night?

See How NovaPod Works →

Day 1: The Water

The box came on a Thursday. My librarian brain wanted proof I could see.
So that morning, after my usual tablet soak, I set my dentures on a white paper towel by the kitchen window. Then I studied them up close, for the first time in 9 years.

Along the edge where the pink meets the teeth: a thin yellowish line. In the little grooves: gunk. I took a picture. (Megan asked why I was photographing my teeth. I said “science.”)

That evening, Megan came over. I filled the chamber with tap water, dropped my dentures in, and pressed the button.
5 minutes. Megan checked her phone 3 times.
The light clicked off. I lifted the lid.
A set of dentures soaking in a white NovaPod ultrasonic cleaner on a kitchen counter.

The water was gray.

With little bits floating in it like pepper.

I'd soaked those dentures in a tablet the night before. I'd brushed them that morning.

Megan leaned over the chamber and went quiet.
Then she whispered, “Mom. Did all of that come off your dentures?”

Day 2: The Paper Towel

Next morning, same paper towel, same window, same light.

The yellowish line was mostly gone. The grooves were clean. I held my phone next to yesterday's picture and stared.
Day 4

I took a sip of my morning coffee and tasted coffee. Just coffee. I couldn't remember the last time.

Day 7

I'd never had the nerve to ask anyone before. So I handed my dentures to Megan and said, “Smell these.” She did. She looked up at me, surprised. “Mom, they smell clean.”

The 3rd Sunday

I heard tiny sneakers in the hall. I was in my green chair with a book, and I didn't look up. I didn't want to jinx it.
She ran straight at me. She didn't stop.
She climbed up, tucked her head under my chin, and said, “Grandma, read me the bear book!”
I read it twice. I breathed slowly the whole time, the way you do when a bird lands near you.
Megan took a picture from the doorway. She didn't tell me. No gap.
An older woman and a young girl sit in a large armchair and read a book together.

I can't tell you what Lily did or didn't smell. A 6-year-old doesn't explain herself.

I can only tell you what changed: the water in that chamber, and a little girl in my lap.

Look at the water after your first cycle. Then decide.

See What Comes Off Yours →

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The Honest Part

You wipe the basin after each cycle. 30 seconds. I forgot twice.
I've had mine for 7 weeks, so I can't tell you about year 3. And it cleans. It won't fix a loose fit or a sore spot.
✓
Try it if
✓

You clean every night and the taste never resets by morning.

✓
You've tried tablets, other brands, and brushing, and you're out of ideas.
✓
You'd rather see proof than guess.

✕

Skip it if
✕
Your dentures hurt or don't fit right. That's a dentist problem.
✕
Your gums are sore or bleeding. Please see your dentist first.
✕
You're hoping it'll replace your visits. It won't. I still go.

Questions I Asked Before I Ordered

– Joanne

P.S. Tomorrow morning, set your dentures on a plain white paper towel by a window. Look at the edge where the pink meets the teeth. It costs nothing. Then ask someone you trust to smell them. Funny thing to ask. Do it anyway.

NovaPod™ Denture Cleaner

5 minutes. Plain water. See what comes off yours.

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This story is based on customer experiences. Individual results may vary. NovaPod is a cleaning device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If your dentures cause pain, soreness, or fit problems, please see your dentist.