Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi,

Ive been reading up a bit on the salt water rinses that everyone says to do. But my ortho never mentioned this to me at all..... What exactly does it do??? And when do I start doing them??? I get extractions on the 21st of this month. Also how much salt for how much water????????

Sorry if theyre silly questions, appreciate your help.

Thank you so much Karen, I think I will start straight away, I'm prone to getting ulcers so this should help prevent those!

Cheers to you!!!!!

My method is to get a bottle of water and mix it up. Then pour a smaller ammount into a cup and heat it in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Saves mixing, which I can't do well, and the convience factor encourages me to do it.

Mike

Thanks again guys, apprecate your responses.

I wonder if it would help to make it a saline solution by adding la little bit of baking soda to the mixture?

This is done for nasal irrigation: distilled water, pure salt, baking soda. The baking soda acts as a buffer.

But of course, the sinuses are different than the mouth. You don't need distilled water for a salt water rinse in your mouth!

I heard salt water rinses rust your teeth.

What about Listerine then? Same effect? Or different? Or...?

Saltwater rinses are good to reduces swollen gums...

Listerene and Peridex kill the bugs that cause the swelling...

Dr. S

So which is better? Salt water rinses or Listerene?

Thanks for your participation on this board!

Mike

Hi iBorg,

(That was my favorite episode from STNG btw!)


I really enjoy the participation, and I think both rinses are great...what we tell our patients as far as keeping everything clean is to simply look at every tooth after brushing (and rinsing well ) and as long as you don't see leftover hamburger from lunch hanging on somewhere, all is well.

Getting folks in the habit of checking themselves after brushing seems to do the trick, and any other adjunct....flouride rinses, listerene, salt water, is a great benefit.

Dr. S

Several times, I've read kk and others say that salt water rinses will "toughen your mouth" and I can't really figure out what that means. Do salt water rinses have some type of residual effect? Aren't they neutralized by the other things that you eat and drink? I can understand that salt water rinses will have some immediate benefits, but I'm not sure what longer effects they would have.

Thanks for any information and/or enlightenment.

Good information. Thanks to everyone.

KK,
Actually, I had checked Google before I posted my question. I found a bunch of stuff about the antibacterial effect of salt water (makes the mouth more alkaline and the bacteria like an acid environment, osmotic effect takes the water out of the bacteria and the cell walls rupture, ...). And, I found stuff on the soothing effect of salt water different types of injuries, in both people and horses! There was also a bunch of stuff on using salt water when you got piercings and tattoos. And, salt water toughens a bunch of different types of food and the bristles on a new broom. But, I just wasn't sure how your mouth would be different if it was "toughened".

I learned a lot more about salt water than I knew before.