India, Feb. 14 -- For decades, the minty sting of mouthwash has been marketed as the ultimate seal of oral hygiene. However, Dr Mark Burhenne, a San Francisco-based dentist with more than 40 years of experience, is sounding the alarm on a habit shared by an estimated '200 million Americans'. Also read | Skipping brushing your teeth before sleep? Doctor explains how your heart is paying the price

In a warning posted to Instagram on February 12, Dr Burhenne said that the quest for '99.9 percent clean' may be inadvertently sabotaging people's cardiovascular health. The core of the issue, according to Dr Burhenne, was that popular antibacterial mouthwashes do not differentiate between 'bad' breath-causing germs and the 'good' bacteria essent...