Bad Breath and its Treatment

To eliminate the most common causes of bad breath:

• Every day, brush twice and floss once. Brushing and flossing disrupt the bacteria that cause gum disease, the chief cause of bad breath.


Bad Breath and its Treatment

• “Gum disease” may call to mind a decayed, fester ingjaw. But it starts innocuously, with gums becoming inflamed and bleeding easily. In time, though, inflammation can lead to infected pockets between teeth and gums, even tooth loss. Whatever its stage, gum disease involves bacteria, damaged tissue, and, often, powerfully sour breath.
• Mild gum disease clears up with two or three days of brushing and flossing. More advanced cases may take a few weeks.
• Brush your tongue. The tongue’s hairlike cells collect fetid mouth bacteria. To scrub away the bacteria, dentists recommend brushing the tongue at least once or twice a week.
• Brush the walls of the mouth, too. Doing so helps remove damaged cells before bacteria start feasting on them. Use a brush with soft, rounded bristles to avoid injuring your mouth.
• Use mouthwash. Provided you don’t have a mouth sore or a wound from dental surgery, rinsing with mouthwash can help, too. Any mouthwash masks bad breath, overwhelming it with flavoring. But this masking is temporary, lasting only an hour or so.
• You’ll get longer lasting results up to 3 hours from mouthwash that reduces the buildup of bad breath bacteria. The active ingredients to look for are thymol, eucalyptol, methyl salicylate, and menthol. In prescription mouthwashes, the key breath cleansing factor is chlorhexidine.
• If bad breath persists, see a dentist or doctor. Unrelenting bad breath may signify serious dental and other problems: food impacted in a cavity, ulcers, diabetes, even kidney or liver failure.