Mouthwash is not only for washing away bad bacteria that thrive in the mouth and throat but also for cleansing the private areas of the body from gonorrhea.
A Listerine advertisement way back in 1879 claimed that it can 'treat' gonorrhea, based on a new study. However, over the years since its curing claims, no scientific studies tried to evaluate it which the authors wrote in their new research that was published on Tuesday, December 20 in the Sexually Transmitted Infections journal.
The researchers conducted experiments using two variants of Listerine mouthwash, Total Care, and Cool Mint to check if the said gargling products could inhibit the bacterial growth in petri dishes.
According to Yahoo News, the degree of gonorrhea caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae over half a decade accelerated twice the number in men in Australia. The findings were written by one of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre researchers in Australia, Eric Chow. He added that almost 70% of the case occurs in men who have busy sex life compared to other men.
In America, gonorrhea rates have increased lately, based on the figures that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided. In the 2014 study, about 110.7 cases were recorded in 100,000 people showing a 5.1 percent surge over the 2013 rate and a gain of 10.5 percent over the 2010 rate.
However, it is still uncertain if gonorrhea found in people's throats being fought by mouthwash could also alleviate the degree of gonorrhea infections in other parts of the body like the urethra. To the contrary, throat infections seem to be the origin of urethral and anal infections previous studies suggested, Live Science reported.
"It may be that more mouthwash reaches the [tonsils] than the [back of the throat] during use and highlight[s] the need to gargle and not just rinse," the researchers wrote.
Based on the studies, the area of the throat infection emerged to play a role on how good the Listerine worked. It is much more effective at bacteria thriving on tonsils compared to the bacteria far located down the throat. The researchers acknowledged that the conducted study is just small much larger ones are necessary to provide the accurate results.