Bad Breath or Halitosis
Have you ever spoken to someone who had noticeably bad breath? Did that person leave a lasting impression in your mind? Bad breath or halitosis affects nearly 50 million Americans daily whether it is occasional bad breath, persistent bad breath or even worse, chronic bad breath. Amazingly, many people that suffer from bad breath are completely unaware of the problem.
Bad breath can be caused by many different factors. Smoking, drinking coffee, eating garlic, onions, peppers or other odor causing food and drink are often the obvious contributors to occasional bad breath. Many times bad breath can be caused by chronic sinusitis, post nasal drip, bronchitis, diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, liver or kidney diseases, or problems in the respiratory tract.
Certain prescribed medications or common, over the counter medicines used for various ailments can be the cause of bad breath. Often times these medications dry out the mouth, which disables the body’s natural mechanism of sweeping out bacteria with mucous and cleaning the mouth.
Typically though, the most common cause of bad breath is odor causing bacteria that live on the back of the tongue or in other infected or inflamed areas of the mouth. These anaerobic bacteria thrive in an oxygenated environment and can be very difficult to get rid of. These bacteria live in the mucus on the tongue, “free float” in the mouth, or flourish in infected or inflamed areas. Where these bacteria live, they produce odor causing sulfur gases from the waste that they produce. These sulfur gases are exactly what you would smell when you smell bad breath.
Find A Permanent Solution For Bad Breath
If you have bad breath or suspect that bad breath might be a problem for you, make an appointment with your dentist. Brushing, mouthwashes, chewing gum or popping breath mints usually just masks bad breath and doesn’t really cure the problem. It may be that there is something more serious going on. Your dentist can do a thorough examination to determine the exact cause of the bad breath. If the cause is related to bacteria in inflamed gums or tissue, chances are your dentist can prescribe a regiment that will fix the problem. If your dentist can not determine the cause of the bad breath, making and appointment with your other health care professionals might be the appropriate course of action as the issue may be arising from somewhere else.