Mouthwash alert

Well alcohol does cause mouth cancers so it makes sense...
I think mouthwash just a marketing scam. Cleaning and flossing is what makes a difference. If you think about it, even if mouthwash does kill a few oral bacteria, the darn things breed so fast they would be back up to full numbers very quickly. You'd have to rinse your mouth with neat bleach if you really wanted to sterilise it!!!!
I don't like the thought of putting products with triclosan in my mouth either... It is creeping into mouthwash and toothpaste if you get your magnifying glass out and read the small print.

PS I love my dentist because she always checks all mouth surfaces for any signs of cancer. I never had a dentist who did that before.

I thought all dentists were obliged to do the oral health screen.

It is a long time since i had an NHS dentist so I don't know. They certainly should. Don't now if they do.

Yes, oral checks are part of NHS dental check-ups.

The cancer has to be fairly well advanced for the symptoms to be detected in a visual check, but the NHS doesn't pay for screening when it could be caught earlier.

what about all the wine drinkers out there ? Are you all at risk?

So what are the first signs of oral cancer Absentgrana?

There is a statistical link between alcohol and oral cancer is what i should have said.

JessM I think it's a painless small lesion that looks a bit like a mouth ulcer pretty much anywhere in the mouth – gums, cheek lining or tongue, for example. It starts to cause a nuisance when it's much more advanced. But I am neither an oncologist nor a dentist and just passed on the information about mouthwashes because I was a bit shaken by it.

I too read the article on mouth cancer - it was quite shocking!

I asked my dentist about it at my last check up, and she said she was going to continue to use mouthwash. I was concerned last week to see that my son had bought some toothpaste which included mouthwash; might advise him not to buy it again. I bought some alcohol free mouthwash a while ago after reading about the possible link to cancer, but can't help but feel it's the acohol content that kills the bacteria anyway. As it is, I use mouthwash but not all the time [about once a week] and usually rinse my mouth with watere afterwards. The best thing by far when it comes to oral hygiene is an electric toothbrush [along with floss and those little brushes]. There's always a scare about something, I suppose. There's also the link between bleeding gums and heart disease. If I could turn the clock back I'd so look after my teeth better [a al Pam Ayres]. For some reason throat and mouth cancer is more prevalent in men.

crimson Probably more prevalent in men because they still smoke more than women – but women are catching up.