5 Toothbrush Care Tips to Keep It Clean and Safe
Dr. B. Kanagasabapathy
[M.D.S. (Ortho), Fellow ICOI]
Your toothbrush will harbor bacteria unless you keep the appliance clean. When you brush twice a day, the toothbrush bristles are coated with germs, food debris and toothpaste two times a day. Right? Similarly, the bristles become a haven for various pathogens when you use the toothbrush while suffering from diseases. Apart from thoroughly rinse your toothbrush after brushing, everyone should indulge in various activities to maintain the sanitary of their toothbrush.
Luckily, the toothbrush care is pretty simple. Our dental hygienists have explained the tips whilst pinpointing the common toothbrush maintenance glitches.
1) Don’t keep your toothbrush in toilet
A toothbrush will not be sterile until you keep it in a filthy environment. In contrast, most people keep their toothbrush in the restroom which ends in recollecting microorganisms on the bristles. It happens with a thing called toilet plume.
When we flush a toilet, the swirling water mixes with particles like urine, feces present in the bowel and splash aerosolized feces that contain fecal coliform bacteria into the air and surrounding surfaces. This is called toilet plume. If our toothbrush is within the range of reachability, then it is exposed to the harmful microbes in the plume and provokes various ailments.
2) Don’t share your toothbrush
Sharing other’s toothbrushes is not a right thing for your oral hygiene routine. Rather, it will be troublesome as the practice injects various infectious microbes into our mouth. Apart from bacterial infection, swapping out to the wrong toothbrush leads to the breakdown of toothbrush bristles and it scratches the gums that eventually cause gum bleeding.
Moreover, this practice provides a way of sharing bodily fluids and microorganisms that will carry the disease-causing pathogens if the other one is suffering from an illness.
3) Prefer the correct mode of toothbrush storage
Besides the environment, the mode of storage is also essential to sanitize a toothbrush. We are stating this because few people use cabinets or closed containers to store toothbrushes after rinsing. It is a wrong approach to store toothbrushes.
Keep in mind that moisture is a breeding ground for bacteria. If you rinse your toothbrush after brushing and store in a drawer, then the brush will not dry whilst the humidity accompanies the existing tiny particles to inherit microbes.
So we advise everyone to keep the toothbrush out to dry. This will help in killing the existing microbes that are not removed while rinsing.
4) Don’t keep the toothbrush in a microwave or dishwasher
It is for those who are involved in some atypical things like using a dishwasher to clean toothbrush and prefer a microwave to dry. Dentists and Oral hygienists have mentioned that such activities will damage the bristles and injure the oral tissues when you clean your teeth with a flawed toothbrush.
5) Replace the toothbrush periodically
Everyone should be replaced their brush every 3 to 4 months. It is because the bristles become strayed and lose their plague-removing efficiency. Moreover, such worn bristles cause abrasions over the enamel.
Moreover, replacing the toothbrush is necessary after recovering from illness like cold, flu and others caused by infectious microorganisms.
Bottom line
The toothbrush will become a habitat of oral bacteria and infuse them into our body if you do not clean the oral appliance properly. Apart from rinsing, you can also soak your toothbrushes in mouthwashes or sanitizers to disinfect them but you should be careful in this sanitizing approach as it provides more ways for cross-contamination.
