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.

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

I bought a uv tooth brush sterilizer. Not sure if it's doing anything useful but it's a colourful addition to the bathroom.

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.