HN Reader

Clickbait! If you read the article, there's no gloom or doom.

30 or more years ago (?), Consumer Reports did a report on toothbrushes and they did a follow-up note or article clarifying their recommendation of how often to change toothbrushes. Their recommendation was not because of bacteria as many readers apparently thought, but because the bristles get worn down and don't clean as effectively.

And the "toilet plume"? Is that more of a problem in Britain? Looking back at John Postgate's Microbes and Man (which I read back in the 1990s):

   Few people realize, however, that when a used toilet is flushed, a turbulence and spray of water and excrement is generated comparable to a sneeze: in any toilet one can isolate faecal clostridia and streptococci from the ceiling, walls and door handle as well as around and beneath the seat.  British water closets certainly generate such infectious aerosols; it is probable that the vortex type favoured in the USA, depending on a swirl rather than a splash to flush the closet, is less generous in the matter of dispersing faecal microbes around the room.

(That was written back in the 1990s or earlier; British folks and travelers can obviously provide more current insight than me, who has never traveled outside the U.S.!)

I never brush my teeth, I irrigate them a couple of times a day and use floss as needed.

Didn’t mythbusters prove fecal matter on brand new toothbrushes, fresh out of the package?

Rarely I think about it. But at times I wonder if we could have home gamma radiation machines to sterilise well about everything... From food to why not tooth brushes or other materials that don't handle heat or other options too well...

Sadly gamma radiation generators will never be safe enough to be widespread for that.

Still could it be workable?

I hate to say it, but... duh.

It's literally going in your mouth. And rinsing it with tap water isn't going to fix that.

There's bacteria everywhere. I rinse mine in grocery-store-strength peroxide every few days to cut down on the 'problem'

Would washing toothbrush with soap just work?

TLDR; "I don't think most people are getting sick from their toothbrush," she says.

This is just germaphobe pornography. Your toothbrush is fine. You’re less healthy if everything is like a clean room in your life.