Oral Hygiene Habits and Possible Transmission of COVID-19 Among Cohabitants

Maria Jose Gonzalez-Olmo; Bendicion Delgado-Ramos; Ana Ruiz-Guillen; Martin Romero-Maroto; Maria Carrillo-Diaz

BMC Oral Health. 2020;20(286)

Conclusion

The use of inappropriate measures in the dental environment could contribute to the indirect transmission of COVID-19 between cohabitants.

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Abbreviation
PCR: Polymerase chain reaction.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank the study participants for their contribution.

Funding
The study was funded by King Juan Carlos University. The organization has no role in the designing of the study, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate
The survey and consent to participate were approved by the King Juan Carlos University Ethics and Research Committee (Registration number: 0103202006520). All participants signed the consent form before the study.

Consent for publication
Not applicable.

Table 1. Mean, standard deviation and significance for the variables dental hygiene and disinfection control of dental environment by sex and cross infection group
Variables	Man	Woman	p	Cross infection	Non cross infection	p
	N =145	N = 157		N = 170	N = 132
	M (SD)	M (SD)		M (SD)	M (SD)
	N (%)	N (%)		N (%)	N (%)
Dental hygiene
Toothbrushing	3.4 (1.3)	3.6 (1.2)	0.304	3.5 (1.3)	3.6 (1.2)	0.541
Flossing	3.0 (1.3)	3.1 (1.3)	0.461	3.0 (1.3)	3.2 (1.3)	0.072
Oral rinse	2.8 (1.3)	3.0 (1.2)	0.107	2.8 (1.3)	3.0 (1.3)	0.323
Tongue-brushing	3.0 (1.2)	3.0 (1.3)	0.847	2.8 (1.2)	3.2 (1.3)	0.029*
Environmental care and disinfection control
Shared toothbrush use
Yes	4 (2.8%)	5 (3.2%)	0.828	162 (95.3%)	131 (99.2%)	0.045*
Not	141 (97.2%)	152 (96.8%)	0.828	8 (4.7%)	1 (0.8%)	0.045*
Sharing brush container
Yes	99 (68.3%)	95 (60.5%)	0.159	127 (74.7%)	65 (50.8%)	0.000**
Not	46 (31.7%)	62 (39.5%)	0.159	43 (25.3%)	67 (49.2%)	0.000**
Sharing of toothpaste
Yes	76 (52.4%)	76 (48.4%)	0.487	99 (58.2%)	53 (40.2%)	0.002**
Not	69 (47.6%)	81 (51.6%)	0.487	71 (41.8%)	79 (59.8%)	0.002**
Brush in vertical position
Yes	120 (82.8%)	123 (78.3%)	0.334	143 (84.1%)	100 (75.8%)	0.069
Not	25 (17.2%)	34 (21.7%)	0.334	27 (15.9%)	32 (24.2%)	0.069
Capped brush
Yes	86 (59.3%)	75 (52.2%)	0.216	93 (54.7%)	75 (56.8%)	0.714
Not	59 (40.7%)	82 (47.8%)	0.216	77 (45.3%)	57 (43.2%)	0.714
Brush disinfection with bleach
Yes	6 (4.1%)	20 (12.7%)	0.008**	8 (4.7%)	18 (13.6%)	0.006**
Not	139 (95.9%)	137 (87.3%)	0.008**	162 (95.3%)	114 (86.4%)	0.006**
Toilet lid closure
Yes	43 (29.7%)	67 (42.7%)	0.019*	42 (24.7%)	68 (51.5%)	0.000**
Not	102 (70.3%)	90 (57.3%)	0.019*	128 (75.3%)	64 (48.5%)	0.000**
Brush change after PCR + test
Yes	115 (79.3%)	138 (87.9%)	0.043*	136 (80%)	117 (88.6%)	0.043*
Not	30 (20.7%)	19 (12.1%)	0.043*	34 (20%)	15 (11.4%)	0.043*

Table 2. Mean, standard deviation and significance for the variables disinfection control of dental environment and dental hygiene
	Dental hygiene variables
	Toothbrushing		Flossing		Oral rinse		Tongue-brushing
	M (SD)	p	M (SD)	p	M (SD)	p	M (SD)	p
Environmental care and disinfection control
Shared toothbrush use
Yes	3.6 (1.5)	0.848	3.4 (1.4)	0.518	2.6 (1.1)	0.458	3.1 (1.4)	0.863
Not	3.5 (1.2)	0.848	3.1 (1.3)	0.518	2.9 (1.3)	0.458	3.0 (1.2)	0.863
Sharing brush container
Yes	3.5 (1.3)	0.277	3.0 (1.3)	0.477	2.9 (1.3)	0.641	3.0 (1.2)	0.638
Not	3.6 (1.2)	0.277	3.2 (1.3)	0.477	3.0 (1.2)	0.641	3.0 (1.3)	0.638
Sharing of toothpaste
Yes	3.5 (1.3)	0.502	3.0 (1.3)	0.519	2.9 (1.3)	0.933	2.9 (1.2)	0.370
Not	3.6 (1.2)	0.502	3.1 (1.3)	0.519	2.9 (1.2)	0.933	3.0 (1.2)	0.370
Brush in vertical position
Yes	3.5 (1.3)	0.393	3.0 (1.3)	0.160	2.9 (1.3)	0.103	3.0 (1.2)	0.722
Not	3.6 (1.2)	0.393	3.3 (1.3)	0.160	3.1 (1.1)	0.103	3.0 (1.4)	0.722
Capped brush
Yes	3.6 (1.3)	0.143	3.2 (1.3)	0.119	2.9 (1.3)	0.644	3.1 (1.2)	0.08
Not	3.4 (1.2)	0.143	2.9 (1.3)	0.119	2.9 (1.3)	0.644	2.8 (1.3)	0.08
Brush disinfection with bleach
Yes	3.8 (1.0)	0.264	3.6 (1.0)	0.028*	2.9 (1.2)	0.973	3.5 (1.3)	0.035*
Not	3.5 (1.3)	0.264	3.0 (1.3)	0.028*	2.9 (1.3)	0.973	2.9 (1.2)	0.035*
Toilet lid closure
Yes	3.6 (1.2)	0.286	3.0 (1.2)	0.335	3,0 (1.2)	0.514	3.2 (1.2)	0.020*
Not	3.5 (1.3)	0.286	2.9 (1.3)	0.335	2,9 (1.3)	0.514	2.8 (1.2)	0.020*
Brush change after PCR + test
Yes	3.6 (1.2)	0.234	3.1 (1.3)	0.703	2.9 (1.2)	0.671	3.0 (1.2)	0.445
No	3.3 (1.4)	0.234	3.0 (1.5)	0.703	2.8 (1.3)	0.671	2.8 (1.2)	0.445