The Winepire Strike Back

A few days ago, we talked about how wine can be good for your teeth and breathe. I then wonder … is it the end of the Mouthwash or is it a sweet revenge of the wine industry?

You way wonder why I talk about “sweet revenge”. I’ll explain this in a bit, but let’s start with a bit of history. Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, the famous 17th century microscopist, discovered living organisms (living, because they were motile) in deposits on the teeth (what we now call dental plaque). He also found organisms in water from the canal next to his home in Delft. He experimented with samples by adding vinegar or brandy and found that this resulted in the immediate immobilization or killing of the organisms suspended in water. Next he tried rinsing the mouth of himself and somebody else with a rather foul mouth with vinegar or brandy and found that living organisms remained in the dental plaque. He concluded - correctly - that the mouthwash either did not reach, or was not present long enough, to kill the plaque organisms.

That remained the state of affairs until the late 1960s when Harald Loe (at the time a professor at the Royal Dental College in Aarhus, Denmark) demonstrated that a chlorhexidine compound could prevent the build-up of dental plaque. The reason for chlorhexidine effectiveness is that it strongly adheres to surfaces in the mouth and thus remains present in effective concentrations for many hours. Rinses in this category include Listerine and Scope.

Active ingredients in commercial brands of mouthwash can include thymol, eucalyptol, hexetidine, methyl salicylate, menthol, chlorhexidine gluconate, benzalkonium chloride, cetylpyridinium chloride, methylparaben, hydrogen peroxide, domiphen bromide and sometimes fluoride, enzymes and calcium. Ingredients also include water, sweeteners such as sorbitol and sodium saccharine, and a significant amount of alcohol (around 20%).

Now, I think that you can see where I’m going. Hobo’s have been known to drink mouthwash as a cheap alcohol replacement (I’m not sure that’s very healthy though). In a sense, mouthwash took away a part of the wine market. Now, it’s wine turn!!! In fact, because of the alcohol content, it is possible to fail a breathalyzer test after rinsing with mouthwash; in addition, alcohol is a drying agent and may worsen chronic bad breath.

Go Wine!!!!