Researchers at San Fran based Center for Breath Treatment are working towards a resolution to solve Halitosis. The possibility of ridding ones self of bad breath doesn’t only make the individual feel better about their social interactions with other people, it allows them to bring back their confidence that they have lost.
Halitosis, or chronic bad breath is caused by a bacteria within your mouth that produces a foul odor. It’s most commonly found right at the back of our mouths on our tongue. We can start off our pathway to fresher breath by ensuring we maintain regular oral hygiene including a good brush of the back of our tongue. Although this sounds pretty simple and something we could solve ourselves, bad breath can be caused by many other things. These can include, but are not limited to; changes in diet, respiratory (or lung) infections, reflux, poorly controlled diabetes, liver failure and kidney failure. All these require not only good oral hygiene but proper medical attention.
Our breath can say a lot about our health just by giving it a smell. If we tend to have a sweet and fruity smelling breath, it could be an indication of diabetes. A urine like smelling breath is indicative of kidney failure and a rather ‘rotten egg’ smell can indicate liver disease.
How can we help keep our breath fresh and truly understand where it is coming from?
Get someone close to you or your health professional (whatever is easiest for you) to give you breath a smell and be honest about what it smells like- Some foods can cause awful smells, as can smoking – if it’s this we can easily freshen up with a dental routine or fresh mint
- More chronic smelling bad breath needs a little more attention than this. Here’s what we can do :
- remove all left over particles of food with your tooth brush at least twice a day, as well as flossing and brushing your tongue
- see you dental professional regularly
- keep your water intake up to help keep your mouth wet to aide ridding your mouth of bad bacteria
- reduce your intake of coffee and alcohol or any strong smelling beverages that linger
- dairy is bad for increasing bacteria such as candida (which causes thrush), try to reduce your intake
- check with you doctor to see if any of your medications can cause you to have bad breath
If you feel like you have been to the moon and back with self interventions and nothing is doing it for you, book an appointment with your dentist.
