A Perth mother has issued a stark warning to Australian families after discovering a shocking amount of mould inside her six-year-old daughter's electric toothbrush. Liesl, a professional cleaner from Perth's southern suburbs, made the unsettling find during a routine teeth-cleaning session on Monday evening.
While brushing her daughter's teeth, Liesl noticed a strange brown substance seeping from the toothbrush. 'I saw the brown inside the crevice, so I started picking at it with a toothpick,' she told PerthNow. 'It just kept coming and coming, more and more.'
Deciding the brush was no longer safe, Liesl took a hammer to the device to investigate further. What she found inside left her 'absolutely disgusted'. 'OH MY GOD. It was absolutely stuffed with mould and gunk,' she shared in an Instagram post to her 5,200 followers. 'The head is no more than a month old, yet my six-year-old's brush has ended up packed with mould which she has been putting in her mouth. Take this as a warning: check your electric toothbrush.'
Her post was flooded with comments from fellow Australians who reported similar experiences with Oral B electric toothbrushes. 'I notice my kids' ones get like this within a month too! So gross,' one mum commented. Another wrote: 'That's exactly why I stopped using the Oral B toothbrush — all of the heads have that!' A third parent added: 'I changed my kids from the Oral B ones for this reason, it happened multiple times no matter how much they were rinsed and cleaned after use.'
Design flaw blamed for mould build-up
Liesl believes a design flaw in the Oral B electric brushes allows moisture and bacteria to penetrate the tool more easily than other toothbrushes. 'We've been rinsing it and maintaining it, but it's the design that's the issue, in my opinion, because there are holes in the front and the back of the brush,' she said. 'The holes are obviously where the moisture is getting in, and no amount of shaking is going to get it back out due to the design. A lot of people commented on my post to say they made the switch because of this design flaw. We're back to using regular manual toothbrushes for now.'
Liesl shared the discovery publicly to raise awareness among other parents about the potential dangers of electric toothbrushes. 'I didn't have a clue this could happen unless I had a look and noticed the brown in the toothbrush holes,' she said. 'Some people aren't that aware or vigilant, and I would just hate for them to miss that and allow their kids to be using a toothbrush that could have mould inside. That's just too dangerous.'
PerthNow has contacted Oral B owner P&G for comment.
