Bacterial Contamination of the Toothbrushes

Abstract

Toothbrushes are an environment for transfer of microbes, their retention and growth. The aim of the study was to evaluate the bacterial contamination of toothbrushes during everyday use in the periodontal healthy student population and to record the way of maintaining the toothbrush and the time and the reason for their replacement with new ones. The research included 20 students of both sexes, with a healthy periodontium, who filled out a special questionnaire and got a new toothbrush for everyday use in one month period. After the test period, toothbrushes were transported in sterile conditions at the Institute of Microbiology of the Medical Faculty in Skopje and further processed. The total number of bacteria in each plate was determined and larger colonies identified by the method of Gram and other biochemical tests. The microbiological findings showed a high contamination of the used toothbrushes at 100% of the analyzed samples, with a domination of coliform bacilli (Escherichia coli-40%, Klebsiella-25%, Enterobacter cloacae-5%, Serratia-15%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa -15%. Toothbrushes became highly contaminated after everyday use and can be carriers of microorganisms, increasing the risk of diseases caused by oral biofilm in healthy people.