What Do You Do With Your Toothbrush?

The British Dental Health Foundation is a charity that promotes oral health to the nation. They regularly carry out surveys and this one about toothbrushes I thought was quite amusing. What do you do with your toothbrush? Here’s what they found:

The national survey uncovered that more than four in every five of us go on to reuse our old toothbrushes for another purpose.

Results showed that four in ten people use an old toothbrush for scrubbing bathroom tiles, making it by far the most popular activity. Almost a third (28 percent) of us use our past toothbrushes to assist in cleaning various kitchen appliances, more than a quarter (26 per cent) use them to give an extra glimmer to our jewellery and roughly one in every five (18 per cent) of adults use the versatile oral hygiene product to shine shoes.

More uses included cleaning bikes, computer keyboards, toilets and toilets seats, fish tanks and finger nails. A clean sweep all-round!

Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, says a toothbrush is able to perform many functions around the home after it’s time cleaning teeth and gums are over.

Dr Carter said: “We all should get through around four toothbrushes every year if we are to keep our oral health in tip-top condition. Generally people don’t change their toothbrushes often enough, but there are still plenty lying around the house and our survey has shown that people realise that a toothbrush has a value and role to play beyond their normal life and use.”

Results from the comprehensive survey found that the age of the owner plays a significant part in what happens to a toothbrush after it is too old to care for the teeth and gums.

Those of us over 75 are three times more likely to re-use their toothbrush for a different purpose than those between the ages of 16 and 34 and twice more likely than those between 35 and 44.

Additionally, women are a third more likely to reuse their toothbrush for chores and other uses than their male counterparts.

Combing eyebrows, dusting archaeological artefacts, children’s painting and other various art projects also featured in what we do with an old toothbrush, while more cleaning alternatives included taps and plugholes, tools, silverware, car batteries and wheels, football boots and bird cages.

Bizarrely, other uses for the oral hygiene product ranged from women who admit to using it to apply their hair dye to those who use the object as a hair chopstick while some men who choose to use an old toothbrush to clean the dog’s teeth or give the golf clubs a sharp polish.

The take home message here is that you should change your toothbrush every 3 months or so to maintain excellent oral hygiene, when did you last buy a new toothbrush for you and the whole family?