# Alcohol in Mouthwash **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342 "2005-08-23T22:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/21 "2005-08-25T01:22:50Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > On second thought, it was hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol’s “twin”. Incidently, I never used hydrogen peroxide orally. > > So since it’s been brought up, why would one type of alcohol be safe and effective for gargling with while the other is poison. I’ve seen peroxide as a tooth whitener. Although, it tells you not to swallow much of it. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/22 "2005-08-25T04:38:42Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > On second thought, it was hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol’s “twin”. Incidently, I never used hydrogen peroxide orally. > > So since it’s been brought up, why would one type of alcohol be safe and effective for gargling with while the other is poison. I have used hydrogen peroxide many times as a mouthwash or to keep a cut clean (like after biting the inside of my cheek badly). No problems. One of my former dental hygienists suggested it many years back. I don’t actually gargle with the stuff, just swish it around, spit it out and then rinse. The bottle suggests this usage. A chemist will doubtless be along shortly to explain exactly why isopropyl alcohol is so poisonous and Listerine doesn’t kill people but I’ll point out that the type of alcohol that you drink IS in fact a poison - people certainly drink themselves dead. Looking at the MSDS sheets for isopropyl alcohol compared to ethanol (the kind you drink) shows that the LD50 for oral ingestion is about 5.8g/kg of body mass for isopropyl and about 7g/kg of body mass for ethanol…that comes from testing on rats btw. Anyhow that shows that while isopropyl is MORE toxic than ethanol, it isn’t like comparing cyanide to chicken soup. Isopropyl may have other nasty effects as well which would make it very dangerous even in small doses, sort of like how methanol can blind you. ---
**Author:** ![Grey\_area](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Grey\_area](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey_area)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/23 "2005-08-25T06:15:11Z")
I used to hear that drinking rubbing alcohol or mouthwash will cause you to go blind. I haven’t tried either but I know people that have in isolated incidents and none of them experienced vision problems. I also know soldiers drank aftershave during WWII unless James Jones is lying. Maybe drinking lots of it will cause blindness? Or is this just another urban legend? ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/24 "2005-08-25T11:31:33Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Once as a child, I swallowed mouthwash (that ACT for kids or whatever it was). It was Christmas Eve, I was all keyed up, and I forgot to spit it out. On the bottle, it said a mouthful wouldn’t hurt, but to drink milk for some reason. > > What would be the purpose of drinking milk? Forgot where I heard this so it’s anecdotal, but milk apparently coats the stomach to slow down/ease the absorption of anything you ingest. I myself have tried this in relation to the kind of alcohol you knock back at last call, and I found that it did, in some measure, work. Took several shots before last call and they started hitting me on the way home (no I wasn’t driving!) and I drank a glass of milk once I got home and felt…no, not anywhere close to sober, but not spinning-drunk either. Now, to a lot of people a glass of milk sounds pretty gross after a night of drinking, but I’m just saying it’s worked for me. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/25 "2005-08-25T13:41:03Z")
Can anybody tell me what sort of mintyish flavor the Crest stuff has? I haaaaaate spearmint, but there’s no telling from the bottles what the stuff actually tastes like. I’m not going to buy a bottle and find out that I hate the basic flavor, putting all other factors aside. ---
**Author:** ![Anaptyxis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anaptyxis/32/3171_2.png) [@Anaptyxis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaptyxis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/26 "2005-08-25T18:26:49Z")
I’m glad this thread showed up. Last month at my regular dentist visit, the hygienist was pushing the benefits of alcohol-free mouthwash on me. She said that it is possible that alcohol-based mouthwashes increase the risk of oral cancer. Of course she said this while trying to sell me a $14 bottle of mouthwash. :dubious: Is there any evidence of an alcohol mouthwash/oral cancer link that comes from a more reputable source? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/27 "2005-08-25T18:49:59Z")
Maybe because alcohol is somewhat “wetter” than water, it can get into the nooks and crannies of your mouth better than a non-alcohol mouthwash. ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/28 "2005-08-25T22:14:14Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > I have used hydrogen peroxide many times as a mouthwash or to keep a cut clean (like after biting the inside of my cheek badly). No problems. One of my former dental hygienists suggested it many years back. I don’t actually gargle with the stuff, just swish it around, spit it out and then rinse. The bottle suggests this usage. What does it taste like? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/29 "2005-08-25T22:34:53Z")
> [@merrily](#): > > What does it taste like? I swish it too. It doesn’t taste bad really. It foams a lot and it has a weak mediciny taste. Try some. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342/30 "2005-08-25T23:33:51Z")
> [@r4nd0mNumb3rs](#): > > I used to hear that drinking rubbing alcohol or mouthwash will cause you to go blind. I haven’t tried either but I know people that have in isolated incidents and none of them experienced vision problems. I also know soldiers drank aftershave during WWII unless James Jones is lying. Maybe drinking lots of it will cause blindness? Or is this just another urban legend? Methanol (which is just one carbon with an OH on it) is converted into formaldehyde in the body and that causes blindness. Ethanol (which is two carbons with an OH on it) just causes you to get drunk. Isopropanol isn’t as deadly as something like methanol. It is my understanding that Isopropanol is just a stronger CNS and respiratory depressant than ethanol, and isopropanol is converted to [acetone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone) which itself is also a strong CNS and respiratory depressant so it takes less amounts to reach fatal levels than it would with ethanol. Isopropanol looks just like acetone except there is only one bond between the 2nd carbon and the oxygen, and the oxygen has a hydrogen on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-in-mouthwash/318342.md?page=1)