tainted with bacteria. It gets worse when you put the bristles to work.
“Your mouth contains more than 500 different types of bacteria,” Tierno says. And if you leave your brush sitting out, it could collect fecal bacteria. “Unless you have a low-flow toilet, aerosolized droplets splatter when you flush. They can go pretty far—up to 20 feet.” Yum!
- Regularly run your toothbrush through a clean dishwasher, using standard dish detergent. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Dentistry found that this method eradicated nearly all disease-causing bacteria.
- Another option is to soak your brush in a mouthwash that contains cetylpyridinium chloride, such as Crest Pro-Health Complete Rinse, for 20 minutes; doing this can also beat bacteria, the study found.
- To avoid flying feces, Tierno says, simply store your brush in a closed cabinet.
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Your Sponge
“The sink is the dirtiest area in the kitchen,” Tierno says, “and the sponge is the dirtiest item in the sink.”
In a recent Simmons College study, nearly a third of dishcloths and kitchen sponges tested were laden with staph (including some with MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant strain of staph) twice the rate of contamination in toilet bowls the researchers swabbed
A great sponge sterilization tip: Throw your wet sponges into the microwave and zap them on high for 1 minute.