The effects of the tuft design and toothpaste on the residual microbial contamination of toothbrushes

Abstract

Objective: Toothbrushes may become contaminated after a single use by a wide array of microorganisms which are present both in the oral cavity and in the external environment. The retention and survival of microorganisms may depend on brush design and toothpaste usage. We aimed to investigate the effect of the brush tuft design and the use of toothpaste on the cariogenic microbial contamination of toothbrushes.Method: Totally 11 dental students whose salivary mutans streptococci levels were >10 6 cfu/mL, brushed their teeth using toothbrushes with two different tuft design using once at one-week intervals. The experiment was also repeated using a triclosancontaining toothpaste. After use, each toothbrush was rinsed under running tap water for 10 s and four tufts were processed for total bacteria, mutans streptococci, lactobacilli and yeast counts using culturing techniques.Microbial colony-forming units for a given brush type for the same volunteers were compared using Wilcoxon test. Results:No statistically significance was found in terms of mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, yeast and total bacteria adhesion between the two types of toothbrushes (p>0.05). Brushing with toothpaste,

Oral Bacteria of Children with Turner Syndrome

“…The typical colonies were counted and calculated (cfu/mL). High detection level was; ≥10 5 cfu/mL for MS, ≥10 4 cfu/mL for LB and ≥10 2 cfu/mL for yeasts; whose detection limits were 10 3 , 10 2 and 10 cfu/mL respectively (11).…”