Patent ID: 7888656

Claim:
A UV sanitizer for tethered and untethered mouthguards, comprising: a portable container defining a mouthpiece receiving cavity inside the portable container receiving mouthpieces of both tethered and free mouthguards and an antimicrobial UV light source interior to the mouthpiece receiving cavity for sanitizing the mouthpieces of both tethered and free mouthguards that may be received in the mouthpiece receiving cavity; said portable container having first walls providing a mouth that inwardly opens to the mouthpiece receiving cavity and forms a tether receiving passageway through which a tether of an athletic mouthguard may extend out said mouth of said cavity when the mouthpiece of a tethered mouthguard is received in the mouthpiece receiving cavity; said portable container having resiliently biased second walls in said mouth which are operable to seal said mouth against UV light leakage when the mouthpiece of an untethered mouthguard is received in said cavity and operable to substantially seal both the confronting portion of the tether in the mouth extending out said passageway and any portion of said mouth not occupied by the tether when the mouthpiece of a tethered mouthguard is received in the mouthpiece receiving cavity and its tether outwardly extends through the passageway provided by said mouth.