Bad Habit in Disguise

Listerine commercials told me how nicely this mounthwash cleans my mouth of all nasty bacteria and make my teeth clean. I bought that and started to use Listerine to rinse my mouth every time I had brushed my teeth. Later on I was discussing this habit with my dentist and I found out a surprising fact about this good habit.

According to my dentist, every time I poured Listerine into my mouth I was washing away the protective flour that I was putting to my mouth while brushing my teeth. I use Pepsodent Super Flour and that has a flouride content of 0,32%. That is far more than Listerines 0,22% (this is the highest they sell, some of Listerine products have even lower flouride content). I stopped with that "good" habit immediatelly.

Listerine still has it's use, for example you can use that to rinse your mouth after you've eaten (if you don't brush teeth after you've eaten of cause), but using Listerine or other mouthwashes after brushing your teeth is actually a bad habit. You're not damaging your teeth, but you would be better of not using a mouthwash.