Evaluation of Effect of Blue Light on Decontamination of Tooth Brushes

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BACKGROUND Oral health is the integral part of good general health and toothbrushes are the most common and vital component of daily maintenance of oral hygiene used for prevention of oral diseases. Toothbrushes used routinely are known to get contaminated over time by pathogenic organisms. Retention and survival of microorganisms on toothbrush is a possible cause of re-contamination of the mouth. Various approaches have been tried for decontamination of the tooth brushes mainly involving disinfectants. Blue light with wavelength of 450 ± 30 nm has been shown to exhibit a broad spectrum of antimicrobial effect. Thus, this study was planned to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of blue light for effective decontamination of toothbrushes against commonly isolated pathogenic microorganisms contaminating the toothbrushes along with determining the best exposure time for effective decontamination. METHODS In this cross-sectional analytical study, participants were enrolled after IEC approval in 3 groups based on duration of blue light exposure. Two different set of toothbrushes were given to participants, one to determine the contamination and other to see the effect of exposure to blue light for different durations on decontamination. Data was maintained and analysed using in Microsoft Office Excel with appropriate statistical tools. RESULTS The use of blue LED light emitting 450 ± 30 nm wavelength used in our study has shown a significant reduction in microbial contamination by pathogenic and commensal organisms in the daily use of toothbrushes. The participants with an exposure of 30 minutes effectively with best results statistically were with 8 hours of exposure. CONCLUSIONS Study suggests that exposure of blue light with wavelength of 450 ± 30 nm can be effectively used to routinely decontaminate the toothbrushes against pathogenic microbes. Thus, causing them to absorb violet/blue light and subsequently lead to the production of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can inactivate microbes. KEY WORDS Blue Light, Phototherapy Treatment, Decontamination, Tooth Brushes, Reactive Oxygen Species

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