Poor oral health can affect all other aspects of their health — from physical to mental — Kami Hoss, the co-founder of The Super Dentists in San Diego, told TODAY.com. But in our effort to keep our mouths clean, a lot of us are making some critical mistakes.
Hoss is especially horrified by antiseptic mouthwash, which kills 99% of everything, as advertised, and leaves behind only the most harmful bacteria, Hoss told TODAY.com.
Hoss urges consumers to think of the mouth as a garden, with the many helpful oral microbes inside it as flowers and plants, and the bad bugs as weeds. "If there was a weed growing in your garden, you wouldn't just throw acid and weed killer all over and kill everything, the way we do it in our mouth," Hoss said.
To be clear, Hoss isn't nixing all mouthwash. Mouthwash can reach areas of the mouth that your toothbrush can't — you just don't want it to be harsh. Hoss recommends choosing an alkaline mouthwash to restore the pH of the mouth instead of harsh alcohol-based washes.
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