By
Daily Mail Reporter
17:46 EST, 4 May 2013
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03:40 EST, 6 May 2013
A new study presented on Saturday challenges the assumption that an old toothbrush can carry germs that cause illnesses.
A team of experts at the University of Texas Medical Branch were unable to find any strep germs on more than a dozen toothbrushes used by children with strep throat.
However, those researchers did find potentially harmful germs on two brand-new toothbrushes right out the package.
Not new, no prob: A new study presented on Saturday challenges the assumption that an old toothbrush can carry germs that cause illnesses.
‘I was just dumbfounded,’ Dr. Lauren Shepard, who led the university’s toothbrush research and presented her findings at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies on Saturday, told NBC News.
According to Shepard’s findings, tests of toothbrushes from more than 40 children showed only one brush contaminated with group A Streptococcus, the bacteria that causes strep throat.
That toothbrush came from a child who did not have strep throat, she said.
Incidentally, none of toothbrushes from the 16 kids who did have strep throat produced the bacteria.
‘They grew the normal stuff but they did not grow strep. That really surprised us,’ Shepard told NBC.
Shepard’s team set up their series of studies after making sure that it is actually possible to culture bacteria off a toothbrush. The researchers then worked on simulating a real-life test.
The young test subjects brushed for one minute, without using toothpaste. Their toothbrushes were then stored in a sterile bag for testing.
All clean: None of toothbrushes from the 16 kids who had strep throat produced the bacteria that causes it
Shepard said she and her research team were unable to grow Streptococcus A bacteria off any of the toothbrushes from the children who were infected with the bacteria.
A single child who did not have strep throat had the contagious bacteria on her toothbrush, Shepard said, noting the possibility that the child was a so-called strep carrier, someone who carries the bacteria without showing any signs of illness.
‘This study supports that it is probably unnecessary to throw away your toothbrush after a diagnosis of strep throat,’ Dr. Judith Rowen, a strep specialist and pediatrician at UTMB who worked on the study, told NBC.
One of the biggest surprises for the UTMB researchers was when they tested two brand-new toothbrushes as a control and found bacteria on them.Â
‘When we took them straight out of the package using our own sterile techniques … both of them grew something,’ Shepard said
One grew staphylococcus, which is a fairly common form of bacteria, while the other grew some type of bacillus, such as the common germ E. coli, she said.
‘Even the microbiologists thought that was pretty gross,’ Shepard told NBC. ‘They were like, “Oh, I can’t believe they grew stuff’.â€â€™
Results: Tests of toothbrushes from more than 40 children showed only one brush contaminated with group A Streptococcus, the bacteria that causes strep throat
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