If rinsing with mouthwash is not a part of your daily oral health routine, you might want to consider grabbing a bottle. While it’s not a replacement for daily brushing and flossing or biannual dental visits, mouthwash can reach areas that can’t be easily reached by your toothbrush. Here are some reasons you should consider using mouthwash to improve your dental health.

5 Benefits of Mouthwash

1. Keeps Tooth Decay at Bay

Rinsing with a fluoridated mouthwash can help keep cavities away and strengthen your teeth. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that reduces the risk of tooth decay. Fluoride’s biggest benefit is that it remineralizes, or helps to reintroduce important minerals, onto your teeth to make your enamel stronger. Strong enamel means healthier teeth that can fight off tooth decay.

2. Reduces Risk of Plaque Buildup & Gingivitis

Plaque is a film of bacteria that grows on the surface of your mouth, beginning as a sticky substance that can harden over time into tartar. If plaque is not removed by good oral hygiene habits like brushing and flossing, it can lead to tooth decay and gum disease. Gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum disease and is characterized by tender, bleeding, and inflamed gums. Rinsing with an alcohol-free anti-plaque/anti-gingivitis mouthwash after brushing and flossing your teeth is another great way to keep plaque buildup under control and reduce the risk of gum disease.

3. Helps Prevent Dry Socket

Gently rinsing with an alcohol-free antibacterial mouthwash may be helpful in preventing dry socket, a painful condition that occurs when the blood clot that is supposed to form after an extraction is dislodged or doesn’t properly form. But be sure to not vigorously rinse or swish, which could dislodge the blood clot.

4. Freshens Breath

This is probably the most obvious benefit, but rinsing with an alcohol-free antimicrobial mouthwash can help combat bad breath by working against the sources that cause bad breath, such as food particles being left in your mouth and disease-causing bacteria.

5. Whitens Teeth

Mouthwashes specifically designed for whitening contain hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide. Rinsing with mouthwash may get you closer to the smile of your dreams by stripping your teeth of surface stains.