One of the comforting sounds of my childhood was my dad gargling in his bathroom before heading off to work. My sister and I would join in, heads thrown back, warbling our froggy music.
The mouthwash in question, Listerine Antiseptic—a potent, alcohol-rich brew—was doing all sorts of damage to something that, until fairly recently, wasn’t a concern: the good bacteria in our oral microbiome. The aim for ages was to kill bacteria, not encourage them to thrive.
