Brushing and flossing your teeth have been a part of our lives ever since we learned how to do them. However, as we got older, our schedule has gotten busier and our routines have made us more tired. Tempting and sometimes prompting us to let go of our thrice a day of brushing practice. Sometimes, we go further and resort to using mouthwash only. While using solely mouthwash for our dental maintenance cannot be helped sometimes, some people still opt for mouth washing alone. However, mouth washing alone is actually disadvantageous even if brushing teeth is more time consuming and taxing to do every day. research shows that brushing teeth is actually disadvantageous compared to using mouthwash. These are 3 reasons why you shouldn’t use mouthwash alone.

Mouthwash mask underlying problems within the mouth

Using mouthwash often leads to unseen threats and potential oral problems. As it is convenient and quick, it can only offer short term solutions. While it is true that it may leave a fresher breath, it does not however, address all oral health concerns. Mouthwash can only pass through the teeth and gums and not really remove the plaque. As such, the plaque build up untouched by the mouthwash leads to a problem of bad breath. And having a bad breath isn’t really pretty but otherwise problematic. The longer your breath smells bad, the more chances that you will have a faster deterioration in your oral health. Without brushing or flossing, and only using mouthwash plaque can even lead to tooth loss, heart disease and stroke. 

Mouthwash cannot kill 100% of the plaque

Clearly, plaque build up is really difficult to get rid of. So difficult that mouthwash normally can’t get rid of them alone. The reason why it is difficult to get rid of is that plaque build up attaches itself to the teeth and gum line like a sticky glue. The only way to efficiently and completely remove them is by using several methods. Verily, mouthwash alone isn’t the solution. Brushing alone too will be insufficient since the bristles cannot get into the tiniest gaps between each tooth. However, adding flossing together with mouthwash and brushing to your oral care would greatly benefit your dental hygiene. Without doing all these three, especially with just mouthwash alone, may lead to tooth decay and gum disease which are the most common dental problems. 

Mouthwash kills good bacteria

Another problem with mouthwash is that its components do not see good bacteria and bad bacteria. Its components, usually the alcohol in it, see everything as its enemy once inside your mouth. And so, it destroys not only the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria which are responsible for keeping your mouth clean and healthy. Without the good bacteria, the bad bacteria can easily build up since we open our mouths almost all the time. However, rebuilding good bacteria is difficult as we only tend to our oral hygiene on select parts of the day. It is far better to reduce the usage of mouthwash as it can decimate the good bacteria in our mouths compared to brushing and flossing which only address plaque and bad bacteria.