Microbial contamination of power toothbrushes: a comparison of solid-head versus hollow-head designs

Microbial contamination of manual toothbrushes relative to their design has been documented for decades, citing concern for cross contamination and self-infection with microorganisms. A pilot study of different power toothbrushes was conducted, to compare a solid-head brush to 2 hollow-head brushes for residual contamination with commonly occurring oral microorganisms.

Participants who met inclusion criteria were enrolled and brushed twice daily for 3 weeks with 1 of 3 randomly assigned power toothbrushes. Brush heads were vortexed and cultured using 5 appropriate media for oral microorganisms: anaerobes and facultative microorganisms, yeast and mold, oral streptococci and oral enterococci anaerobes, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Fusobacterium species. Analysis of covariance was used to compare the brush groups for transformed microbial counts after adjusting for any demographic variables that may have confounded the results.

The solid-head power toothbrush was found to have significantly less microbial contamination than either of the 2 hollow-head power toothbrushes for all the bacteria tested and less than 1 of the hollow-head brushes for yeast and mold.

The solid-head power toothbrush studied had significantly less residual microbial contamination than the 2 hollow-head power toothbrushes after 3 weeks of twice daily brushing with non-antimicrobial toothpaste.