Recognizing Bad Breath Symptoms: Seven Tests You Need to Know
Most of us can’t smell our own breath, and for some of us, this is a good thing. The problem is, how can you diagnose whether you have halitosis if you can’t smell your own breath? It’s a question most of us don’t even want to ask our closest friends.
The fact is, there are many symptoms that can direct you to the information that you might need to take measure to make your breath smell sweeter. Here is a checklist of seven important bad breath tests.
1. An off-white or yellow coating on the tongue.
It is very common for people who have halitosis to have mucus on the tongue. This off-white or yellow film on the tongue is really a coating of anaerobic bacteria that accumulate in cracks in the tongue, where they digest proteins from food particles and from the mouth itself without need for oxygen. The larger your taste buds, the greater the potential of your tongue to trap these bad breath factories. If you have post-nasal drip, you may not be aware of the coating on your tongue as it builds up. A tongue scraper can help and is one of the must-have tools, but so can home sinus irrigators or a neti pot. They can be far more helpful in controlling bad breath than a trip to your dentist and dental hygienist. A bright red color in your gums and bleeding when you brush, however, are symptoms that mean you need to see the dentist right away.
2. Dry mouth.
Known in the medical research literature as xerostomia, dry mouth changes the oral cavity in a number of ways that contribute to bad breath. First of all, as saliva production is decreased, bacteria become more concentrated. Bad breath will be more noticeable at longer distances. Also as less saliva is produced, bacteria are rinsed off the surface of the tongue and cheeks less frequently. And as the mouth dries out, tiny cracks and fissures form to provide halitosis bacteria with the perfect home.
The number one cause of dry mouth is excessive coffee drinking, but medications are a major contributor to a diagnosis of dry mouth, too. Diuretics, of course, dry the mouth, but so do the medications that control irritable bladder or frequent urination. Many antidepressants and all the drugs for Parkinson’s disease contribute to xerostomia. Less frequently, the contributing condition is diabetes, Sjögren’s syndrome, or radiation to the mouth and neck. These last three conditions usually cause dry skin in addition to dry mouth.
What can be done to treat dry mouth? Sip water throughout the day. It rinses away food particles that might stick to your gums and teeth. Chewing sugar-free gum also helps, and people who have autoimmune conditions like Sjögren’s syndrome may benefit from taking a daily capsule of fish oil or flaxseed oil.
3. Bitter, sour, or metallic taste in your mouth.
Diagnosing taste perception is difficult. The diseases that cause changes in the way you taste things are often obscure, but altered taste perception is a common side effect of chemotherapy. If you have been taking chemotherapy for cancer and you have a bitter, sour, or metallic taste in your mouth, you can at least rest assured that it isn’t due to conditions that also cause bad breath. In rare instances, nerve damage elsewhere in your body can cause phantom taste perception.
In women, sour or metallic tastes are an occasional component of monthly hormone changes, and men receiving hormone therapies can notice odd tastes too. These likewise do not signal bad breath.
If you have not been taking medications that commonly change taste perception, and you have bitter, sour, or metallic tastes in the mouth, however, chances are you also have bad breath. These tastes are more frequently associated with yeast overgrowth than with the other bacteria that cause bad breath, but the underlying factor may be a milder form of dry mouth. The treatments listed for dry mouth also help if you have a bad taste in your mouth.
4. Post-nasal drip.
Do you need to clear your throat a lot? If you do, you don’t need an extensive workup at the clinic to know that chances are you have post-nasal drip, a draining of mucus from your sinuses bypassing your nostrils and going straight to your throat. The mucus can get caught on the cracks and crevices of your mouth and tongue and feed the bacteria that cause bad breath.
Post-nasal drip is often caused by allergies, but what most doctors won’t tell you is that post-nasal drip is often caused by a food allergy. If there is some food you eat every day—tomatoes, for instance—that’s the food that is most likely to be causing the problem. Simply taking a break from an everyday food may be enough to stop both post-nasal drip and halitosis.
Nasal sprays can make bad breath worse. They open up passages, but they also dry them out. Dry nasal passages provide hiding places for sinus bacteria to make the same kinds of odors that cause bad breath in the oral cavity. You are a lot less likely to develop bad breath if you use any method other than a nose spray to open up your sinuses.
5. Lumps on the tonsils.
If you feel a lump in the back of your mouth, or the top of your mouth, and you have a history of tonsillitis, strep throat, colds and flu, or sore throat, you may have tonsil stones. These are odor-causing accumulations of bacteria and mucus that grow in cracks in your tonsils. You could just have your tonsils, removed, of course, but many people find that spraying the back of the mouth with a WaterPik or similar oral irrigation device is a great way to loosen the stones—and when they come loose, bad breath goes with them. Tonsil stones are also a common cause of chronic bad breath in children.
6. Brushing doesn’t make a difference.
Odd as it may sound, sometimes brushing your teeth not only does not prevent bad breath, it makes bad breath worse. Particularly if your toothpaste is formulated with sodium laureth sulfate or sodium laurel sulfate, brushing your teeth can dry out your mouth. The drier your mouth, the more places bad breath bacteria can take hold and grow. If you are already brushing three times a day, try some of the remedies for dry mouth for greater confidence in the social acceptability of your breath. A very good sign you are brushing too much is pain when you brush.
Here is an important tip: Flossing is a great tool for oral health, but flossing technique makes a difference, too. Remember to loop floss around the tooth and floss side to side to side. Flossing up and down can injure your gums and trap food particles between your teeth.
7. Mouthwash doesn’t keep bad breath in check, either.
Many mouthwashes rely on alcohol to kill the bacteria that cause bad breath. This is just a temporary fix, because the bacteria find their way back, and the alcohol in the mouthwash dries out the mouth so they find many new places to grow and flourish. Any oral care products that contain alcohol will have the same effect. Try mouthwashes that don’t contain alcohol or simply drinking 2-3 cups of green tea or white tea every day as a way to keep halitosis problems under control.
These seven signs don’t cover one of the most common questions about halitosis:
Was it something I ate?
One thing you shouldn’t worry about too much is what you eat. Yes, it’s true that eating onions and garlic will produce funky breath, but that effect is temporary, about six hours at the max. The seven suggestions above give you good ways to check for bad breath that lead to treatment that really works.
