We are all well aware of the long term additive ill effects of alcohol on our body and tissues. Some people fail to realize that their favorite mouth rinse has or may have a large amount of alcohol contained in it (17-21%). Rinsing for one minute twice a day with an alcohol containing mouthrinse exposes you to the same harmful effects that "having a few" at the local pub does.
The intense burning feeling you get when you spit out the rinse is a result of the alcohol drying out the mucous membranes of your mouth. If you are a smoker and use alcohol containing mouthrinses the alcohol inreases the carcinogenicity of the chemicals in the tobacco tenfold.
Previous oral cancer patients should select mouthrinses that contain no alchol especially if they had radiation therapy that affected the salivary glands. A common question I get from my patients is what will keep my breath fresh and kill the bacteria if there is no alcohol. The answer is the chloride ion (salt). There will be no burning after you spit it out and in actual fact it will lubricate the mouth and reduce bacterial counts just as effectively as alcohol containing products.
Non alcohol containing mouthrinses are readily available at your local pharmacy.

Hope this is useful to you,

Burning is bad!!
Cheers
Mike