You should generally expect your toothbrush to gather bacteria as you brush with it, which is why it is recommended that you rinse it out and sanitize it periodically. However, if you share a bathroom with other people, there are worse things than bacteria to worry about.
According to a study recently presented at the meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, many toothbrushes become tainted with human fecal particles. Most of these come from shared bathrooms. Of the toothbrushes stored in such bathrooms, a full sixty percent are contaminated, while eighty percent of these had feces coming from someone other than the brush’s owner.
This contamination is largely the result of the toilet, which sends up a faint spray of water when you flush it. There isn’t much to this spray, but over time it can build up on anything that is left out in the open too close to the bowl. With this in mind, try to keep your brush in a closable container, and contact our Issaquah dentist for more information on healthy brush maintenance.
