The effect of daily usage of Mouthwash on the oropharyngeal microbiome (opens in new tab)

I suffered from canker sores all of my childhood and well into my early adulthood. I sometimes had as many as 20 sores around my mouth. I've as long as I remember used a non-SLS toothpaste but I still got the sores - especially around stressful periods of time like around exams. For some reason they started appearing less and less as I approached my 30'ies. I never have them anymore now. I still use the same non-SLS toothpaste though as I'm not really keen on them returning despite the toothpaste not really helping me much when I was younger. I'm imagining it helped with them not being worse than they could be.

Another reason why I kept the same toothpaste brand is that I've never had a single cavity in my adult teeth while my siblings have had plenty (they used a different brand than me). Not sure if it's credited to the toothpaste or just if it's because I never flush my mouth with water after brushing - they still do that to this day.

Thank you for sharing this! My 5-year-old daughter occasionally has canker sores. I just checked her toothpaste and it contains SLS.

I use sensodyne which is SLS free or low SLS, because I don't like how pukey regular toothpaste makes me, and my dental hygienist mentioned that she always recommends it for people with canker sores because doesn't cause them like normal toothpastes do.

Hmm, I wonder if putting surfectants in everything might have negative consequences.

What brand of toothpaste do you use for this? I often struggle to find a toothpaste that's SLS-free but still has fluoride.

Yes, in the article they contrast alcohol and fluoride rinses, citing evidence fluoride rinses don't seem to result in notable microbiotic changes in the same way. They also cite similar findings as theirs in research on alcohol use.

The article is here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376202105_The_effec...

Alcohol based mouthwash should be banned, it certainly is in some countries.

I think so yes

Are these bacteria causal or merely associated?

Cheers, saved me some time.