Everyday, we have to deal with a lot of people. Even a simple conversation of just saying hi and bye also we have to open our mouth. Sometimes we may have a bad breath due to several reasons. It will be shameful for the person with bad breath or awkward for the person who is listening. It happens frequently around us everyday. Thus, mouth rinse was invented!!! for the benefit of those people with bad breath and dental problems...
Mouth rinse actually has a long history recorded. It is firstly successfully produced at 1960s where the main effective ingredients, chlorhexidine, is added into the mouth rinse solution. Chlorhexidine is actually a chemical antiseptic which is designed to reduce dental plague and oral bacteria. It can thus improve bad breath. The effectiveness of chlorhexidine is that it can successfully adheres to the surfaces of the mouth and thus remains its present for several hours. In fact, the reference for mouth rinse had actually been noticed back to 2700B.C. in the chinese medicine. Over years and years of inventing and improving, finally it had comes to the products that we have it for today.
Today, we have many types and brands of mouth rinse as more and more people are paying more attention to their breath and oral care. But overall, they can be conclude into two types, cosmetic, therapeutic rinses and a combination of both. So those mouth rinse that we are using daily are belongs to which types?
According to the information of University of Maryland medical center, cosmetic rinses are those sold as over-the-counter products. Cosmetic rinses help to remove oral debris before and after brushing, temporarily suppress bad breath, diminish bacteria in the mouth and also refresh the mouth with a pleasant taste. While for the therapeutic rinses, they have the same functions as cosmetic rinses with a few extra functions. These include in the therapeutic rinses, they have added an active ingredients that helps to protect against some dental diseases into the mouth rinse. Also, these therapeutic rinses had been regulated by US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and are voluntarily approved by American Dental Association (ADA). All of these rinses claim that they are effective in reducing the build up of dental plaque and the associated of the severity of gingitvitis, an inflammation of the gum, in addition to fight bad breath.
Yet, most of the dentist are skeptical about the value of these mouth-rinsing products and these products should be used with caution.Although mouth rinse may give us fresh breath, it may brings harm to some people too. This is because the mouth rinse may be masking the symptoms of oral health condition or diseases as the bad breath we have sometimes maybe an alert of our oral health condition indicating somewhere is wrong. Thus, dentists will tell us that it is better to not use the mouth rinse.
Beside that, there are researches and experiments that suggests that rinsing with mouth rinse do bring side effect to us. In most antiseptic mouth wash which is the over the counter products, there will be a high level of alcohols in it of about 18% to 26% depending on the types of mouth rinse. This range of alcohol may produce a burning sensation in cheeks, gums and teeth. It will also caused intoxication if used excessively or swallowed or used by children. For children, even a small dose also potentially be lethal. For those prescribed mouth rinses with higher alcohol level inside, several side effects will possibly be happen. This include ulcers, root sensitivity, soreness, numbness, change in taste sensation and few more. There was a report published by Dental Journal of Australia in January 2009 concluded that there are sufficient effidence that alcohol containing mouth rinse will contribute to the risk of oral cancer!!!! But later, it had been disputed by Yinka Ebo of Cancer Research UK concluding that there are still not enough evidence in showing the claim above. Whether it is true or not, i think all of us can maybe spend a minute or two to sit down and think about this question because afterall, we are the one who will be effected.Some people will wonder, what is the ingredients in this amazing rinse that provide the function of cleansing our mouth?? Basically there are five types of components that are essential in the mouth rinse. They are an active bacteria-fighting ingredients such as quaternary ammonium compounds, boric and benzoic acid. Example of these are cetylpyridinium chloride and hexetidine. Other than that, these essential compounds include phenolic compounds such as methyl salicylate and thymol, a flavouring agent such as saccharin and glycerin, astringents like zinc chloride to provide a pleasant-tasting sensation and shrink tissues and finally ethyl alcohol, ranging from 18 to 26 percent; and water.
We can see that most mouth rinse do contain alcohol which will make the periodantal diseases getting worse!!!The more alcohol contains in mouth rinse, the more sloughing it will be and this will provide food for the bacteria, leading to higher contents of bacteria in our mouth. This will increase the sulphur levels of bad breath!! Thus, try to avoid alcohol based mouth rinses. Some mouth rinse also contain buffers to reduce acidity, dissolve mucous films and alleviate soft tissue pain. Anticavity rinses usually contain 0.05 percent sodium fluoride, or 0.1 percent stannous fluoride, as approved by the FDA. The active ingredients in mouth rinse can vary. However, all the studies, clearly establish and acknowledge that Chlorhexidine remains the most effective mouthwash.So, here is what mouth rinse looks like and the information i have about it. Hope that it will roughly give u an idea of how it is. Whether to use it or not, its totally up to you... Thanks for enjoying this post if it does helps you although its bit lengthy =)
References:
1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouthwash
2)http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/mouthrinses.htm#What%20are%20the%20differences%20in%20rinses
3)http://www.umm.edu/oralhealth/rinse.htm
4)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine
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