Avoiding Thrush: Swish and Spit

In the ongoing saga of my life, my husband is teasing my college-aged daughter. Again.

Most dads are experts at telling dad jokes and teasing their kids. My husband could go pro. I was recently doing laundry when I heard my daughter yell, “Mom! Dad is making fun of me again!”

I could hear my husband say, “Tattletale.” Then yell to me, “No I’m not!”

I peeked around the corner and saw my daughter roll her eyes. She said, "Dad is making fun of me for swishing and spitting!"

For those of you who take a daily controller inhaler, I hope you know the importance of the swish and spit.

Why should I swish and spit after using my asthma inhaler?

Inhalers that you take every day (called controller or maintenance inhalers) are made with a yeast base. This can cause a fungal infection on the tongue called oral thrush. It turns your tongue white and can cause painful red sores. It also makes food taste awful.

How to prevent getting oral thrush? My asthma doctor taught me and all 3 of my kids (we all have asthma) to “swish and spit.”

After we use our daily controller inhaler, we swish water around in our mouth and spit the water out. If it’s nighttime, we quickly brush our teeth and tongue. If it’s morning, we have breakfast and then brush our teeth and tongue. To us, it’s a normal part of our routine, every day and every night.

If someone is around us while we swish and spit, it might look really weird. I used to keep my inhaler in the kitchen cabinet with my vitamins. That way, I could use my inhaler, swish and spit, and then have breakfast and my vitamins. Then I would use it at night before I went upstairs to bed.

One evening my oldest son was having a movie night at our house. Wanting to make myself scarce, I decided to head upstairs. But I needed to use my inhaler first.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my son’s then-girlfriend watching me use my inhaler and then do the swish and spit. I don’t know if she was disgusted or fascinated, but it made me uncomfortable. If I was in a better mood, I would have explained to her why I was doing that. After all, I am an asthma educator. It's my job to help people understand asthma.

Avoiding oral thrush the best we can

If you have ever had oral thrush, you know how hard it is to get rid of! So I’ll do anything to prevent it.

Even though I know how to avoid it, I have still had thrush a few times over the years. I don’t know how. Did I not swish long enough? Did I not brush my teeth and tongue well enough?

When I get thrush, the only way I can get rid of it is to take an anti-fungal medicine. The last time it happened, I was overwhelmed with my job and life in general. I didn’t have time to leave the office and drive to another city to see the asthma doc. So I reluctantly walked down the hall to see the big boss. He was a doctor, and I knew he could do a quick visit and write a prescription for an anti-fungal.

I took a big breath before I entered his office because I was nervous about his reaction. Sure enough, he lectured me. He said as an asthma educator, I should know better! He asked me if I was swishing and spitting. I told him I do it EVERY time I use my controller inhaler. But somehow, I still got thrush.

He gave me the raised eyebrow look and wrote out a prescription. I filled it on the way home.

Since then, I've made sure I take extra time to swish and spit. And my daughter does too.

Now about my husband's teasing her...maybe I should ground him from his guitars?!

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