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J Am Dent Assoc, Vol 132, No 9, 1241-1245. © 2001 American Dental Association

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Background. Contaminated toothbrushes have been shown to harbor and transmit viruses and bacteria. The authors conducted a study to evaluate the effect of a triclosan-containing toothpaste on the residual anaerobic microbial contamination of toothbrushes.

Methods. Twenty patients who had Type III or Type IV periodontitis participated in this study. One side of each of their mouths served as a control (no toothpaste). The teeth on the other side were brushed with a regular toothpaste or a triclosan-containing toothpaste. After the toothbrushes were allowed to dry in air for four hours, the authors placed the toothbrush heads in solution, dislodged the microbes from the brushes by vortexing and plated them in culture dishes. The authors anerobically incubated the culture dishes and determined the presence or absence of Prevotella species or Ps; Porphyromonas gingivalis, or Pg; and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, or Aa.

Results. The authors detected Aa and Pg on the control toothbrushes more frequently than they did Ps. This variation in isolation frequency was statistically significant by ² analysis (P < .001). The authors compared the isolation frequency of the three test organisms between the control and regular-toothpaste groups, between the control and triclosan-containing–toothpaste groups, and between the triclosan-containing–toothpaste and regular-toothpaste groups. They found no significant intergroup differences in the isolation frequencies after using ² analysis.

Conclusions. Toothpaste use reduced the residual microbial contamination for two of three test organisms, but the lower isolation frequencies were not statistically significant. Further study in this area is indicated.

Clinical Implications. Dental professionals should advise patients who have systemic, localized or oral inflammatory diseases to disinfect or frequently replace their toothbrushes.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				W.-E. WETZEL, C. SCHAUMBURG, F. ANSARI, T. KROEGER, and A. SZIEGOLEIT Microbial contamination of toothbrushes with different principles of filament anchoring J Am Dent Assoc, June 1, 2005; 136(6): 758 - 765. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]