
Mouthwash … it’s of the devil.
Mouthwash … it doesn’t just kill plaque.
Now, that’s a slogan you don’t see Proctor & Gamble using. But it’s quite likely your mouthwash isn’t doing your erections any favors. Read on.
Nitric Oxide Produces Good Erections
Erections are all about nitric oxide. Not nitrous oxide, the lovely legal high you can get at the dentist’s. Nitric oxide. The lovely vasodilator that gives you rock hard erections. The kind that make both you and your wife very happy.
Putting it simply, when you have sufficient nitric oxide, your body produces harder, more reliable erections. So how can you get your body to produce more of this wonderful stuff?
Nitric Oxide is Made in Your Mouth
The process goes like this …
You consume food containing nitrates.
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Bacteria on your tongue converts the nitrates into nitrites.
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Dietary nitrite converts to nitric oxide in the gut.
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Nitric oxide goes to work in your body making your veins healthier and your erections stronger.
How It Goes Wrong
The problem with using mouthwash, though, is that you are murdering the bacteria in your mouth that turns those nitrates you just ate into nitrites. They’re dead on the ground before they ever get the chance to do their thing.
Less bactera = less nitric oxide = less erections
In fact, one study shows that using a chlorhexidine-based mouthwash decreased oral nitrites by 90% and nitrite levels in the blood by 25%. (And incidentally also increased blood pressure. Remember that nitric oxide is a vasodilator which is really good for your heart health, as well as for strong erections.)
So, throw away the mouthwash and reclaim that stronger, firmer version of yourself.
Interesting hypothesis.
The oral flora contains many kinds of bacteria and other micro organisms, some good, some neutral, some bad. Disrupting the biofilm that adheres to the teeth and other oral structures is critically important for healthy teeth and gums. Chlorhexidine is another matter — it is a prescription product not present in OTC oral rinses in the USA. I wonder if daily use of regular OTC mouthwash such as Listerine has been shown to be correlated with problems getting/maintaining erections. Would love to see a study on this.
I hypothesize that having yuck mouth is strongly correlated with not getting laid.
Signed, a dental hygienist.
@JellyBean —
Good points. Most of the studies so far have focused on the ingredient chlorhexidine, but it is thought that alcohol-based mouthwashes may have the same inhibitory effect on the beneficial bacteria in saliva. There is also some speculation on toothpaste, but until the data is in, there’s just no way to know.
Rebecca
Very interesting post, never thought that mouthwash can had this effects.
I’m worry about toothpaste, I hope we found studies on this soon.
Thanks for sharing !