Why You Have Bad Breath In The First Place
Halitosis–bad breath–one of the most humiliating situations a person can find themselves in, and yet millions of us are unaware of chronic bad breath. Still millions of other people aren’t sure what they can do to finally get rid of their stinky breath. For some, bad breath only occasionally plagues them, for others suffer from bad breath daily and nothing seems to abate the offensive odor. Some bad breath only slightly offends yet another persons bad-breath can be so putrid and offending that it can clear an entire room.
If you’ve ever struggled to get rid of chronic bad breath you know how difficult it can be. There are a few crucial facts to understand in order to finally get rid of your stinky breath problems. The cause of bad breath is not the food particles left behind, between and on teeth, the real cause of halitosis can be traced to volatile sulfur compound producing bacteria (VSC) that are consuming the pieces of food left between and on teeth, in the crevices of the tongue and in deep crevices of molars and pockets below the gums around teeth.
Ever get a whiff of a stinky barnyard, a heap of rotting trash or a pile of feces? Those are the same types of (VSC) bacteria working their magic in those stinky things too.
How To Tell If You Have Bad Breath
Simple ways to determine if your breath is offending:
- Ask. Obviously the easiest way to determine if you have bad breath is finding someone you can ask. Significant others, dental professional but the easiest and best candidate for a candid answer is a kid. Children are uninhibited and will give you an honest answer right away.
- The lick test. Give the inside of your wrist or the back of your hand a good lick, let the saliva dry for 30 seconds or so, then sniff it. If is smells less than fresh, you may have a breath issue.
- Use a gauze or spoon to rub or scrape the back third of the tongue. If there is significant coating of the back of the tongue, bad breath may be an issue. Give the spoon or gauze a smell for confirmation.
Vanquish Bad Breath For Good
Stop doing this:
- Avoid foods that are known to increase bad breath like dairy, onions, garlic, sugar, and other high protein foods along with sugary starches which can all worsen bad breath.
- Smoking of any kind can also increase bad breath, and as with smoking, which dries out the tissues in the mouth and encourages bacterial growth, alcohol also tends to increase the likelihood of bad breath.
Start doing this:
- Drink green tea after meals. In studies green tea and some other teas have been proven to inhibit (VSC) bacteria from proliferating. It’s a short term solution, but the study, measurable improvement from green tea was greater than the benefits of those from using mints, chewing gum, even greater than celery or parsley.
- Don’t skip brushing your teeth twice daily and flossing your teeth one time daily, routine oral hygiene easily eradicated hundreds of millions of bad breath causing bacteria.
- Drink! Drinking lots of good, clean water. Staying hydrated helps ensure that you’ve got as much good, slippery saliva as possible. Saliva helps keep sensitive tissues healthy and also flushes out and washes away debris from food, this inhibits bacteria growth.
- While onions and dairy are noted for causing bad breath, cheese shouldn’t be skipped because cheese is also good for your teeth and bad for bacteria, just like onions, while smelly themselves, they are noted for killing several specific types of bacteria found to cause halitosis…so kill the bacteria and then grab some gum.
- Get your beauty sleep. It’s not just for looks, in one study getting less than six hours of sleep was the greatest contributor to worsening periodontal disease, even over smoking or skipping brushing. Getting seven or more hours of sleep are crucial for keeping (VSC) bacteria at bay.
- Clean your tongue. A thorough brushing can be effective though tongue scrapers are made especially for this task, scraping from back to front during your daily brushing sessions drastically reduces the number of stinky bacterial colonies inside the mouth.
- Use the right mouthwash. If you already use a mouthwash, make sure it’s one that will make a difference and not compound the issue. After you brush and floss use a mouthwash that is alcohol free and for the very best results look for ones containing the active ingredient; stabilized chlorine dioxide.
- Routine dental cleanings with a dental hygienist up to three times per year.
Contact our office to try out a mouthwash better suited to maintaining a healthy mouth and to get your next cleaning and checkup scheduled. Start enjoying the confidence you deserve, knowing your breath is fresh and clean.