Why don “over the counter” mouthwash stop bad breath?
Up until our science was established, the accepted approach for the treatment of bad breath was to kill the bacteria that cause the problem. This is exactly what commercial mouthwash is designed to do, and in fact many mouthwash are registered with that particular claim. One of the ways commercial mouthwash kills bacteria is by the alcohol (ethanol) in the mouthwash mix. The problem is that the bacteria being killed by the mouthwash, are part of your normal mouth bacterial makeup. Granted they are in excess usually, and this is why they cause the problem. But they are still normal body bacteria and as such are not a mouth infection. Removing them so haphazardly can result in an unforeseen change of mouth environment. The result will be different each time you use the commercial mouthwash. The variance makes it impossible to get a good and healthy mix of the right bacteria in your mouth to have fresh breath. In fact overuse of strong mouthwash can lead to an overgrowth of the Candida fu
