The Quinnpiac University study revealed that the brushes contained “bacteria, viruses or parasites that are not part of the normal flora of the individual,” as published in the journal of the American Dental Association.
Now, a new study published in Microbiome concludes that the diversity of microbes that live on the toothbrush probably come from our mouth, face or skin, and not from the gut.
“I’m not saying you can’t stain your toothbrush with toilet spray when you flush it,” says Erica Hartmann, lead author of the study. “But from what we saw in our study, the overwhelming majority of Toothbrush germs probably come from the mouth. “
Hartmann and his team asked study participants to mail in their used toothbrushes along with meta-information about their use and oral hygiene and storage. They extracted DNA from toothbrush samples collected through the Toothbrush Microbiome Project to assess what types of microbes lived on the brushes. They took samples and compared the findings with a National Institute of Health catalog of microbial flora.
“We found that toothbrush microbes have a lot in common with the mouth and skin and very little in common with the human gut.”
Interestingly, the study also found that people who claimed to have better oral hygiene practices had a lower diversity of microbes on their toothbrushes overall.
Referencia: Blaustein, R.A., Michelitsch, LM., Glawe, A.J. et al. Toothbrush microbiomes feature a meeting ground for human oral and environmental microbiota. Microbiome 9, 32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-020-00983-x
