Causes of Bad Breath

Do you have bad breath or do you know someone who has chronic bad breath (halitosis)? If so, diagnosing the cause of the bad breath is the first step in treating it. If you know someone who has excessive bad breath, they need to be told by someone close to them. Telling someone they have bad breath is uncomfortable for both the person who has the bad breath as well as the person telling them they have bad breath. If you feel you are close enough to someone to tell the they have bad breath, then by all means do so. They would want someone they can confide in to tell them they have this problem.

However, it is also wise to be knowledgeable on the subject of bad breath, to be able to offer them tips, suggestions and helpful advice. If you have bad breath, hopefully someone you trust told you about this problem in a caring and private manner. Regardless of how you became aware of your bad breath problem, it is important to learn about the causes of bad breath in order to find an effective treatment.

Unfortunately, halitosis can not be cured, but it can be treated, all but eliminating the symptoms (bad mouth odor). Causes of bad breath include “lazy” saliva, consuming foods that smell unpleasant, and lack of oral hygiene. Lazy saliva is saliva that does not remove the amount of bacteria from a mouth that it should. Everyone’s saliva removes bacteria from their mouth (bacteria smells offensive, and is the root problem of halitosis). Many people with bad breath have saliva that removes only a portion of the bacteria it should remove, leaving their mouth constantly full of excess bacteria.

Possibly adding to the problem of excess bacteria are foods and products with offensive smells, such as coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, onions, and more. If you eat foods with bad smells, you should expect your mouth to smell bad, at least until the particles and bacteria left by those foods are removed from the mouth.

Lack of oral hygiene will also leave bacteria sitting in the mouth, basically creating a sewer that, well, smells like a sewer. You have to brush your teeth, floss, scrape your tongue, and rinse your mouth with an effective mouthwash in order to remove most of the bacteria left by foods. Everyone should perform oral care at least twice a day (once on awakening, and once on retiring to bed), but people with halitosis may find it helpful to wash after each meal as well.

If you have halitosis or know someone who has it, go to www.bad-breath.org to find an extensive library of information about halitosis – its causes, treatments, and available products. No one likes bad breath. Get rid of it today at www.bad-breath.org.