Review of Listerine Smart Rinse, Berry Shield

I have never been a fan of mouthwash, or Listerine. As a kid my dad used to be able to rinse with Listerine's original formula. You know the stuff right? That yellow pee colored liquid in an over sized bottle, that sat in just about every bathroom in the 1980's.

Since then Listerine has come a long way, and over the 2 decades of changes, and flavor additions; I have tried my fair share. All of them were the same though. They'd leave my breath feeling so fresh, and my mouth so clean, but the burning sensation one had to suffer in order to get such results were enough to keep me away.

More recently though, my dentist continued to pester me about mouthwash. I lied and said I used them, but the fact was, I had 3 unopened bottles of them in my bathroom. I just didn't like them. Even the kid's flavors were too harsh for me, and the minty ones just burned.

I gave it one more shot though. I saw a really cool commercial for Scope, and fell in love with the oh-so-sexy new bottle shape. However while browsing the mouthwash section, I came across Listerine Smart Rinse, Berry Shield.
 
Although I deeply associated Listerine with burning tongue syndrome, the rinse seemed really cool. It may have been more geared at kid's, but I didn't care. I liked berry flavors more than mint flavors for my mouth wash, and Scope didn't have a pink option.

Listerine Smart Rinse had 2 options as far as flavor goes. Berry and Mint. Berry seems to be the less harsh of the 2, so I went with it.

I knew nothing of this rinse prior to buying it. All I needed to know was that it was an anti-cavity rinse, and that was what I initially was looking for.

I forced myself to use this one, as the 3 unopened bottles that sat on the floor looked up at me in disgust. How dare I bring home a newbie rinse, while I had 3 un-used bottles waiting to be used. Sorry, but Smart Rinse just looked cooler.

I removed the lid, and squeezed the bottle. The rinse is made with that nifty feature that I like. You just squeeze, and it fills up the cup attached to the top. You fill it to the line, swig it into your mouth, and swish, and swish, and swish. Then spit.

When I spit though I noticed that there were particles in the sink that had been dyed the color of the mouth rinse, only a little darker, like a purple gray color. Basically I was staring down at all of the nasties in my mouth, that personally I had no idea were even in there.

I was pretty grossed out, because my mouth felt relatively clean even before using the rinse; yet here it was, right in front of me, in my sink. All the particles that brushing, and flossing had missed.

However even though I was grossed out by this, I knew from then on out, that I would never again skip rinsing. I had no clue how much crap was left behind in my mouth, and being able to see that my mouth contained all these particles, I began using the rinse daily, after eating, and even after brushing, to ensure a cleaner mouth.

It's basically a motivation to continue to use the rinse, and I am glad I came across Smart Rinse, otherwise I'd probably never rinse very often.

The berry flavor is also decent too. It does not burn, nor is it too sweet. It's a nice refreshing berry mix, that I will continue to use. Knowing that the berry flavor was not harsh, I may try for the mint one next time.

If you don't like rinsing, or have kids that don't like rinse, I highly suggest giving this one a try. It's a huge motivation to continue to use the rinse, especially when you can see all of the missed particles that were still in your mouth.