When you are prescribed medication, your doctor and pharmacist will tell you to not take medications with other medications and even with certain foods. For instance, many immunosuppressive drugs cannot be taken if you are eating grapefruit at the same time. Properties in the grapefruit can cause damage to your system if you eat it while taking those immunosuppressive drugs. That is why there are warnings of not drinking grapefruit juice while taking drugs to suppress your immune system whether you are an organ transplant recipient or have an autoimmune disease.
The same applies when it comes to almost all drugs when it comes to drinking alcohol. That is why you should never drink within a certain timeframe of taking the medication. The same applies to mouthwash since there is the alcohol content in there. No, you don’t drink mouthwash and you should not do so anyway. And not every medication doesn’t mix poorly if you use mouthwash. However, there are two antibiotics that do mix poorly if you use mouthwash which is why you do not want to do that. There are two antibiotics that are so potent that they can cause you damage if you take them while you use mouthwash.
Which Two Antibiotics Do Not Mix Well With Mouthwash?
According to the founder and pharmacist of HoneyBee Health, the two antibiotics that do not mix with mouthwash are metronidazole which is known as Flagyl, and Tinidazole which is known as Tindamax. They can have harmful effects on you when in contact with alcohol to the point that using mouthwash is dangerous.
Doctors prescribe metronidazole to those who have any serious parasitic or bacterial infection, and Tinidazole is an antibiotic used to treat various vaginal infections as well as parasitic infections such as giardiasis. If you do not ever recall taking either of these medications, then chances are you didn’t have a severe enough bacterial or parasitic infection to warrant antibiotics that are so potent such as those two. If you did use mouthwash while taking other antibiotics and you did not have any problems after doing so, then it was safe to do so.
What Happens If You Use Mouthwash If You Take Two Of Those Antibiotics?
If you take metronidazole or Tinidazole and you use mouthwash, then your body will immediately have a severe intolerance to alcohol. Remember that even though you don’t drink mouthwash, your body still absorbs it. The antibiotics will change how your body breaks the alcohol down. Therefore, you will likely experience a rapid or irregular heartbeat, head and neck throbbing, sweating, hypotension which is low blood pressure as well as nausea and vomiting. These side effects can last anywhere from a half-hour to several hours. The good news is that they usually go away after that, and the only lasting effect you may have from it is short-term trauma from the experience.
If you do not have any underlying conditions such as cardiovascular issues, then you can wait it out at home and do your best to stay hydrated. However, if the symptoms are severe and are lasting longer than an hour, or if you have cardiovascular ailments, then you need to go to the ER so you can be monitored.
How Can You Avoid Any Harmful Side Effects From Any Medication?
All medications come with the risk of you having side effects. However, if you want to keep it at a minimum, you must follow the instructions that the doctor and the pharmacist give you. In most cases, drinking alcohol is not recommended for most medications. Most of the time, however, using mouthwash is safe except for cases where you are prescribed Metronidazole or Tinidazole.
