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An unpleasant smell from the mouth can ruin a date, alienate friends, and hinder a career. You can deal with bad breath by brushing your teeth after each meal, regularly removing tartar at the dentist's office, or following a proper diet.

Bad breathis such an embarrassing ailment that it is not always talked about even between people who are close to each other. Meanwhile, it is a very common ailment, because each of us comes into contact with it at some point. How to fight it? There are several proven ways to do this, but to choose the right one, you need to know more aboutcauses of bad breath .

Bad mouth odor: neglected teeth

According to research conducted in many countries, the cause of bad breath by far (as much as 87% of cases) lies in the mouth. More precisely - it is the result of neglect or improper hygiene. On unwashed teeth, plaque accumulates, consisting of food remains, which is a great medium for various microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. They have favorable conditions for rapid multiplication, resulting in caries, gum and mucosa diseases. These diseases are usually accompanied by an unpleasant putrid smell.

Dentists estimate that dental and periodontal diseases are responsible for over 30% of cases of bad breath.

Almost as common cause of the problem are dentures, especially those made of acrylic. It is a porous material, therefore in the event of insufficient hygiene, bacteria and fungi quickly multiply into it. Leaky crowns or bridges, under which food remains and remains, are also a source of putrid odor from the mouth.

But by far the most common (about 41 percent of cases) the blame for the bad breath is the raid on the back of the tongue, in which anaerobic bacteria multiply. One of the products of the metabolism of these microorganisms are volatile sulfur compounds that are unpleasant to the smell (hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, methyl mercaptan).

  • Our advice

You have to put yourself in the hands of the dentist - heal teeth and gums, remove decayed roots, eliminate fistulas, inflammation. You also need to check the condition of dentures or individual artificial teeth and possibly seal themor replace. After that, everything will depend on proper oral hygiene.

  • Brush your teeth after each meal, at least rinse your mouth thoroughly, or chew sugar-free gum for 10-15 minutes.
  • Also clean the tongue - remove the tarnish with a special tongue scraper or a toothbrush.
  • After brushing your teeth in the evening, use a mouth rinse that removes microbes at least in part and reduces plaque build-up.
  • Regularly remove tartar at the dentist's office.

Bad breath: diseases of the throat, nose and sinuses

Do you have he althy teeth and gums, do you take care of your oral hygiene? If you still smell an unpleasant smell in your breath, visit an ENT specialist, because the second most common cause of the problem - after dental surgery - are diseases of the throat, nose and sinuses.

This very cause is likely in people who suffer from allergic rhinitis, often have strep throat, sinusitis. In such infections, niches form in the tonsils where food debris likes to settle. During the process of their decomposition, anaerobic bacteria produce large amounts of sulfur compounds. In the tonsil niches, discharge from the sick sinuses and nose can also accumulate.

The problem grows when there are also disturbances in the work of the salivary glands. Normally, saliva rinses bacteria not only from the mouth, it also rinses the throat and tonsils. So when its secretion decreases, bacteria take over.

  • Our advice

Be sure to visit the ENT specialist - to check the condition of the tonsils and sinuses. Your doctor may also check your nasal septum for a distorted septum, which helps to keep secretions in your sinuses and nose. If necessary, he or she will recommend a therapy aimed at opening the airways (e.g. antibiotic therapy, sinus puncture, nasal septum correction, tonsillectomy).

Do you know that…

During sleep, putrefactive processes in the mouth intensify. Why? During the day, saliva rushes into the mouth constantly. It is slightly alkaline and rich in oxygen, so it inhibits the proliferation of anaerobic bacteria that produce foul sulfur compounds. During sleep, the amount of saliva produced per hour decreases, and that is up to 50 times. The result is an odor of morning breath and an unpleasant taste in the mouth, caused by the drying out of the mucosa. However, it is enough to brush your teeth for the problem to disappear.

Bad breath: other reasons

  • Hormonal imbalance, e.g. during menstruation and menopause - less saliva is released then, which leads to an imbalance of the bacterial flora in the mouth and an increased secretion of sulfur compounds.
  • Strong stress - the stress hormone inhibits yousalivation (hence the well-known dry mouth feeling).
  • Applying a slimming diet or fasting - it is often associated with dehydration.
  • Taking dehydrating and antihypertensive drugs - they dry the throat and mouth, and inhibit salivation.

Bad breath: gastrointestinal diseases

Rarely, only about 8 percent. cases, the blame for the unpleasant smell lies with gastric diseases - infections (fungal) of the gastrointestinal tract, peptic ulcer disease, gastritis, gastroenteritis, malabsorption syndrome, insufficient amount of enzymes secreted by the pancreas and liver.

  • Our advice

Applying a more easily digestible diet and eliminating from it all products that could aggravate stomach discomfort (e.g. fatty, fried, spicy foods) may not be enough. Then a visit to the gastroenterologist is necessary.

You must do it

Odor test

It is known that the most difficult thing is to check your own breathing. But there are ways too. The test should be carried out 2-3 hours after a meal, because then the mouth is full of bacteria.

  • Extend your tongue as far as possible and rub its back with a finger wrapped in gauze, and after a while smell it.
  • Use a dry toothbrush to scrub your teeth for 2-3 minutes as if you would normally brush them. Wait half a minute and smell the brush.
  • Clean the spaces between the teeth with floss and smell it after a while.

There are also more precise methods that can be used to check the "quality" of your breath.

  • It is used for this, among others a halimeter that resembles a breathalyzer - you blow, and the device measures the concentration of volatile sulfur compounds in the exhaled air. Some dental offices are equipped with such equipment.
  • A more precise test is gas chromatography, which allows you to assess the composition and concentration of individual compounds in the exhaled air.

The unpleasant odor from the mouth may come from the lungs

A bad smell may begin in the lungs. How does it happend? When we eat an onion, the volatile compounds it contains pass into the lungs and are felt in the breath for several hours after eating. Studies have shown that even if you do not eat garlic and just rub it on the bottom of your foot, your breath will smell like garlic. After drinking alcohol, the lungs and blood become saturated with its smell.

  • Our advice

The only way is … to correct the diet. It is enough to eliminate the onion (especially raw), garlic and very spicy spices.

Unpleasant smell from the mouth - home-madeSOS

Chewing aromatic herbs such as parsley, dill, basil and mint helps to mask bad breath. It is also good to rinse your throat and mouth with chamomile or sage at least once a day. These herbs have antimicrobial and antimicrobial properties. Keep cloves or coffee beans on hand. If necessary, chew them up and hold them in your mouth. Zinc also has an antibacterial effect (e.g. in the form of lozenges) - it lowers the level of volatile sulfur compounds and inhibits their formation. Also, make sure you drink regularly - often, but only for a few sips. Thanks to this, you will rinse out the bacteria from the mouth and prevent the mucous membranes from drying out.

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Category:

Dentistry and Orthodontics