When it comes to personal oral hygiene, I always gargle with mouthwash after brushing my teeth. I not only rinse my mouth of residual toothpaste but give the added advantage of further destroying germs where toothpaste would fail.
Statistically, the inside of our mouth, tongue and throat are a natural haven for germs. Even if we don’t eat, bacteria can still accumulate. So strong is this bacteria, that it has proven the human bite potentially more hazardous upon another human being than that received from a healthy animal, due to the toxic germs which people naturally have in their mouth. When I learnt of this, I realized how significant oral hygiene really is.
Proper oral hygiene is a necessity to maintain good health. Poor oral hygiene can lead to a variety of medical and dental problems such as gum disease, infection, heart disease, neurological and stomach upsets, strokes and more. Not forgetting to mention bad breath.
Hence, I take oral hygiene very seriously.
When I go shopping for anti-bacterial mouthwash, I have noticed there can exist one side of a supermarket or pharmaceutical aisle on just these products alone. I have tried a variety of these mouthwash products. The two I prefer mostly are Scope and Listerine. Though both these mouthwash products work to produce or obtain similar results – that is, destroying germs – they still have their distinctions.
Listed below are my personal experiences in comparing these two products.
Listerine
This mouthwash has been around for well over hundred years. It has a reputation as a notable brand of mouthwash that “kills the germs that causes bad breath”. My great-grandparents used it, as well as my grandparents and parents. No doubt a tradition within the family. My mother was exceptionally strict in raising her children with proper oral hygiene. And Listerine was – as far as she was concerned – the (emphasize) only mouthwash which worked to kill the germs and to disinfect. When strikened with throat infections due to winter colds, Listerine was gargled to remedy and alleviate the problem. Though it was used regularly, it was also used more frequently during the winter season to prevent those nasty little “cold germs” from returning.
I will not doubt that Listerine works. It has been proven to reduce gingivitis better than flossing and brushing alone. Today, I chuckle a bit at the televison commercials advertising a man dressed in a “Listerine bottle” fighting the “Evil Gingivitis”. His sidekick partner is another man dressed up as a “Toothbrush”. Why am I suddenly thinking of Batman and Robin. Indeed, the super mouthwash hero. Together, they will conquer all the “Evil Germs” in “Mouth city”.
Though funny this may seem, it strives to get the message across to its competitors that it is still the best mouthwash on the market. There’s only one downside to Listerine which I have personally experienced. It could improve on its taste. Though it has changed the way it looks in trying to show greater appeal, the taste is still the same. For me, it lacks flavor in its traditional yellowish format. When I tried its new minty flavours, it didn’t seem as strong. However, other than that, it does its work efficiently as an oral mouthwash.
Scope
I like this mouthwash. Though it’s not as old on the market as its Listerine competitor, I decided to naughtily break the tradition within the family. Scope serves the same function as Listerine, and surprisingly, has been proven to kill more germs. In a laboratory test conducting the strengths of both Scope and Listerine in killing off the E-Coli bacteria, Scope won the contest.
Not only that, but this mouthwash manages to keep its strength despite the cool peppermint flavour.
Conclusion
Overall, both Scope and Listerine do their work as a preventative health care for oral hygiene. In the long run, this is what really counts.
