Keeping your toothbrush clean is vital to the health of your mouth as well as the rest of your body. Doing so is a balance between keeping environmental contamination at bay and proper air flow to avoid mold. How you store your toothbrush will determine how well you managed these needs and take care of your teeth.
Storing Your Toothbrush on the Bathroom Counter
All those cute cups and containers at your local stores’ home department have led to the common practice of toothbrushes being kept on the bathroom counter. However, dust particles and mites, pet or pest dander, asbestos, and other indoor contaminants can easily foul up a tooth brushes bristles, especially right after use when they are wet. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that “the quality of indoor air can be 2-5 times more polluted than the worst outside air”, and all of that can get on your toothbrush if it’s not covered.
Another major concern is air born fecal matter from the vapor of your toilet each time you flush. The droplets can get as far as six feet from the toilet, so if you have a small bathroom and your sink is close to your toilet, there’s a good chance that the toilet vapor is getting to any uncovered toothbrushes. Even if the toilet cover is down, the micro-drops get into the air and onto the surrounding surfaces. The National Center for Biotechnology warns that by this contamination, your toothbrush can get bacteria and viruses to your mouth. Plus, that’s just plain gross.
The Danger of Wrapping Your Toothbrush Up Tight
After that last paragraph, you’re probably already thinking about wrapping your toothbrush with sterile plastic or something. Unfortunately, completely covering your toothbrush isn’t ideal for storage either. Since you use your toothbrush to clean your teeth twice each day (you do follow those ADA recommendations for tooth healthy right?) that means that your toothbrush is wet twice each day and must air off and dry between uses. If you were to cover your toothbrush and not allow this air flow, you run the risk of allowing mold and oral bacteria to fester in your tooth cleaner.
The bacteria you remove from your mouth with your toothbrush is anaerobic, meaning it dies if it gets too much oxygen. Proper ventilation of your toothbrush after use kills off that bacteria and keeps it from re-infesting your mouth. If you must cover it, use a toothbrush holder that has small holes in it to allow complete moisture evaporation. Many electronic brushes come with a snap on bristle cover with fine slits to accomplish this. These are fine, as long as you are taking the time to clean the cover often to stop cross contamination.
Another important thing to consider is to always store your brush handle down. This allows any remaining water in the bristles to be pulled by gravity away from them. No moisture means dead bacteria and no chance for mold to grow.
Family Contamination
Another important fact to take note of is how multiple toothbrushes stored together can swap germs and bacteria. Just as colds and viruses are contagious, oral bacteria and cavity infections can be spread by toothbrushes that are stored up against each other. Make sure that there is a toothbrush head cover or general air space between each family member’s toothbrushes for ultimate sanitation.
The Ideal Toothbrush Storage
So with all of the above in mind what is the very best way to store a toothbrush? How can we avoid the contamination of toilet droplets, airborne contaminates, swapping germs with our family, and avoid mold growing? Simply make sure whatever toothbrush holder you have places toothbrushes heads up, separated, covered with a ventilation type cover, and placed in a fully closing medicine cabinet. This solution guarantees the cleanest toothbrush and healthiest mouth because of it.
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