Inadvertent taste test

This is one of those "you may point and laugh" posts.

Last night, I decided to remove the remnants of the chipped-up nail polish I had on. I use those nail-polish-remover soaked felt pads to do that with. Like many of those products, it has added denatonium benzoate (trade name: Bitrex) to prevent children from putting it in their mouths.

I didn't think much of it at the time - I removed the nail polish, briefly rinsed my fingertips under the tap, shook the water off my hands, and went off and did something else for a bit. A little later, I went to floss my teeth, which of course involves cramming your fingertips in your mouth. Almost immediately, I got a HORRIBLE taste in my mouth.

My first thought was, o crud, did I break another tooth and I'm tasting, what? The pulp? Could I have an abscess that burst? (Of course not - no tooth pain, no illness and all my teeth were sound)

After a moment it dawned on me: I didn't wash all the nail polish remover off my fingers. By now, I was spitting copiously into the sink. (The stuff makes your mouth water and you froth a little bit). According to the Wikipedia page, "10 ppm is unbearably bitter to most humans.' Well, I guess "not rinsing quite carefully enough" left a few ppm of it on there, enough for me to taste. (I wouldn't say "unbearably" bitter, but it was enough to make me keep spitting and rinsing out my mouth).

It takes a very long time (and lots of rinsing with water) to make the taste get out of my mouth enough for me to be comfortable putting my mouthguard on and going to bed.

The selling point of Bitrex, is, of course, that it is so bitter it makes you spit it out - that way, kids won't ingest things like nail polish remover. I can vouch for how nasty it is.

When the Nintendo Switch  first came out, it was mentioned that the tiny little cartridges that the games were on were treated with the stuff to prevent kids from swallowing them, and so of course gamers had to try it out.  Maybe the guy in that video clip was tougher (or had a more jaded palate) than I am, but he didn't seem to have the long-term aftereffects of the taste.

(It is kind of a slow burn - first, you notice a little bitterness, then it gradually builds, then your mouth starts to water kind of like it does right before you hurl, and then you have to spit....and it probably took about a half-hour of spitting and rinsing to be rid of it)