This is the cubicle you should always use in a public toilet, according to a doctor

Going to a public toilet can often prove to be a surprisingly awkward and taxing experience.

For men, it’s deciding between standing next to a stranger at a urinal, or awkwardly lingering outside a cubicle until one becomes available.

For women, it’s having to deal with the fact that queues for female toilets always tend to be unfairly longer than those for men – and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be clean either.

And after all of that comes the big question of which cubicle will be the cleanest.

Thankfully a doctor has now come up with the answer – and it’s pretty surprising.

Dr Mehmet Oz claims that most of us tend to skip the first toilet in a block of cubicles, and instead head for one further down that looks like it hasn’t been regularly frequented.

But the direct result of this is that the first toilet doesn’t get used that often – and it’s this cubicle that tends to be the cleanest.

Dr Oz says: ‘When you use a public restroom, do you tend to skip the first stall and choose one farther away from the entrance? If you do, you are not alone. Experts theorize that people tend to skip the first stall in favor of stalls farther back to have a little more privacy.

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‘But because the first stall is used least often, it contains the lowest bacteria levels. Instead of skipping the first stall, choose it to help avoid possible infections.’

So, always go for the first toilet – your health will thank you for it.