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What item you use frequently would you be least surprised to learn is secretly bad for you?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2024
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Toothbrush. In one hand it scrubs food and gunk away and helps distribute fluoride toothpaste around. On the other itβs made of tiny plastic bristles that are probably disintegrating when in your mouth and growing a fun ecosystem when out of it.
Ever since I heard of microplastic, this has been on my mind quite a bit. Although it might not be "ingested" if they are micro enough, it can probably still get absorbed every time you brush. Multiple that by every day of your life and, boom, now there's plastic in my balls and I'm 3D printing on my girl's face.
Iβm stealing it
Swirl necklace
This is a clever answer and now I completely agree with you.
the number of things growing on your toothbrush is definitely non zero but being frequently scrubbed in sodium fluoride probably inhibits a good portion of it\
related though, electronic toothbrushes are way, way better in terms of tooth care, and my understanding the last time I read through marketing bullshit a few years ago was that the rotational/mechanical ones were better than the ones that just vibrate i.e. Oral B vs Sonicare, but the fucking Oral B toothbrush heads have fucking exposed bits of the mechanism, like, there's these holes in it, so like, guess what? mold grows in there
I don't understand how that isn't like, you know, a massive design flaw that should be changed immediately, but I guess they want people to swap toothbrushes more often than mold would grow, idk
A bit of advice from some dental organizations and my family member who is a dentist, you really shouldn't use the same toothbrush twice a day. The toothbrush should be left to completely dry out before reusing and that takes longer than 16 hours in most climates.
I bought a uv tooth brush sterilizer. Not sure if it's doing anything useful but it's a colourful addition to the bathroom.
UV is good at breaking down plastics β¦.
In theory, your toothbrush is getting a clean twice a day. Its already covered in nice sudsy toothpaste foam and you'll (hopefully) be rubbing and rinsing that off.
The plastic disintegrating in your mouth however, yeah, I can't dispute that!
This is probably why dentists recommend replacing them frequently.