A Handy Guide to Bad Breath Solutions
Every day nearly 12 million people search the Internet for solutions to bad breath. They pore over page after page, seeking much needed bad breath help, trying to get rid of the invisible odor that has taken over their oral hygiene and that can ruin social relationships.
And probably you are one of the approximately 12 million seekers of bad breath cures looking for help. You’ve come to right site. This article and 38 more will help you find your solutions for getting rid of bad breath for good.
Nearly everyone has bad breath at one time or another. The problem with bad breath is that we usually don’t know that we have it until we see people backing away from us or some bold or tactless person lets us know directly. Some people suffer from halitosis, which is bad breath that just won’t go away. Others have bad breath occasionally but not all the time. Finding the cure for bad breath begins with finding the cause.
The Causes of Bad Breath Probably Aren’t What You Think They Are
The kind of bad breath that is probably the easiest to treat is onion- or garlic-breath. You chomp down into bits of onion or slices of garlic, and stinky sulfur compounds are released into your mouth. For up to six hours after you eat, you can even reek onion or garlic out of your ears and nose.
Getting rid of onion and garlic odors, however, is very simple. Just rinse your mouth. If you evacuate the odor-laded food particles from your mouth, your bad breath will quickly turn sweeter. The same technique works for bad breath caused by eating stinky cheese or pickled fish, or exotic rotten foods that aren’t that common in the United States, such as full-strength fermented (or literally rotten) fish sauce in Asia or delicacies like certain kinds of pastrami in Italy or fermented fish or sheep parts in Iceland.
If you are concerned about stinky breath while you are eating, then plan to consume some high-fat foods or beverages with your meal. Coconut milk, for instance, masks the garlicky odor you get from eating some kinds of Thai food. Cow’s milk will mask the odor of eating garlic bread, at least until you have a chance to brush your teeth and rinse your mouth. But brushing your teeth the wrong way is actually the major cause of bad breath.
Brushing Your Teeth and Bad Breath
Brushing your teeth the wrong way is the #1 cause of bad breath. The problem usually is not brushing too much. It’s a lot more likely to be brushing too much—not brushing too many times per day, but brushing parts of your mouth that weren’t meant to be brushed.
Persistent bad breath is usually caused by bacteria. These microorganisms can munch away on food particles left on your teeth and gums and tongue, but they can also feed on tiny bits of you if they are left in the sulcus, or crevice, between your teeth and gums.
One of the byproducts of bacterial digestion of food particles—or your own tissues—is hydrogen sulfide. This is the chemical that causes rotten egg odor. Bacterial digestion in your mouth also releases methyl mercaptan (sewer odor), and releases some proteins aptly named cadaverine, putrescine, and spermidine. (They also appear in the substances their names recall.) Getting rid of these bacteria will get rid of bad breath odor, but how do you get rid of the bacteria?
Brushing and Flossing the Right Way
Most people confuse brushing their teeth with brushing everything in their mouth. Your toothbrush is only designed for brushing your teeth. And some toothbrushes are not even designed for that.
It is important to protect the enamel of your teeth by always using a soft toothbrush. A toothbrush with bristles that are firm enough to be scrub brush can wear tiny grooves into your teeth. As much as 50 years later, your teeth will not be able to grow new enamel to repair the grooves. These slots in your teeth can accumulate bacteria that cause bad breath and even cause the tooth to split. Making sure you use a soft toothbrush is essential both for fighting bad breath and for preserving your teeth.
When you do brush, hold your brush so that it makes a 45-degree angle with your teeth. You don’t want to brush up and down. That would risk injury to your gums, and also force particles between your teeth. You want to be sure to start at one side of the top jaw and work your way across, down, and across again, brushing each tooth front and back.
Then rinse. Next it’s time to floss.
It is important to use floss that is strong enough not to break off between your teeth but fine enough not to get stuck. Peppermint flavorings is fine, but fluoride-treated floss won’t really be in your mouth long enough to make a difference.
Flossing is a little like throwing a lasso. You pull out enough floss to wrap around your two index fingers with a gap between them. Then you throw out a little loop of floss around a tooth and pull from side to side, bringing the loop closer to you as you floss. (Don’t pull so hard your tooth breaks.) You always floss your teeth, not your gums. You don’t want to dig floss into your gums to remove food particles. Why? Because grooves in your gums become homes for bacteria.
What About Mouthwash?
Mouthwash is useful as a quick fix for bad breath, but the benefits of mouthwash usually only last about an hour. And most brands of mouthwash really do more harm than good.
Any kind of mouthwash that is made with alcohol probably contains enough alcohol (about 26%) to irritate your gums and tongue, but not enough alcohol (about 46%) to kill germs on contact. This leaves you with the worst possible result. The inside of your mouth becomes irritated and forms more places for germs to grow, and the alcohol doesn’t kill the germs.
There are brands of mouthwash that will really help your breath, such as alcohol-free Jason’s Powersmile Mouthwash with Zinc, Dr. Katz’s, and Oxyfresh Fresh Mint Mouthrinse with Zinc. But rinsing out your mouth with water is better than the original Listerine formula.
You can also keep your breath fresher with oral irrigation and tongue scraping. The most important thing to remember to keep your breath free, however, is to be gentle with your mouth. Avoiding irritation robs germs of a home.
