Bad breath, also known as Halitosis, is certainly embarrassing, isn’t it? More so especially if you are going to meet a couple of hi-fi people who are complete strangers to you. You wanna make a good first impression, but guess what? Your poor breath starts giving a very poor picture of your personality even before you have managed to do anything substantial!
Yes, we all have been there: embarrassed and ashamed to talk to people, even our own spouses, due to foul breath! For a few people, bad breath can also affect their self-confidence and self-esteem quite negatively! In this article, I will tell you what NOT to do in order to ensure a healthy and pleasant breath all the time!
1. Don’t Ignore Bad Breath: I know it sounds ridiculous but while people rush to doctors even when they have a little fever or headache, those same people would not bother to visit dentists when they have bad breath troubles. They seem to think that they would get rid of their malodorous breath merely by brushing; however, bad breath is not always caused by an unclean mouth, and cannot always be treated with mere brushing! The first thing you need to do is to recognize that you have got a problem: BAD BREATH, and then to decide not to rest until your breath smells more fresh and pleasant!
There are two types of bad breath troubles that people usually suffer from: chronic and situational. While situational bad breath is usually caused by poor diet and lifestyle habits and can be cured with the help of a few home remedies, the same cannot be said about chronic bad breath troubles. If you chronically suffer from foul breath, you may as well also be suffering either from liver diseases, diabetes, yeast infection, cold, pharyngitis, or digestive troubles! Heck, bad breath can also be caused by certain medicines. For remedies to chronic bad breath, you should ideally visit a dentist!
2. Don’t Keep Your Mouth Dry: The bacteria that cause malodorous breath usually grow well in a dry mouth; saliva is the only thing that can flush out these bacteria from your teeth and gums. When you sleep at night, the amount of saliva that flows within your mouth decreases substantially, which in turn makes your mouth dry! No wonder, you experience a really stinky breath early in the morning!
There are several things you can do to keep your mouth moist and body dehydrated all the time. Firstly, you should avoid all kinds of drinks which make you body go dry; these include – coffee, tea, alcohol, etc. Secondly, you should drink plenty of water throughout the day, starting early in the morning! Thirdly, you should eat a lot of juicy fruits rich in Vitamin C, such as berries, oranges, etc. All these steps would ensure that you have a pleasant breath at all times!
3. Don’t Use Tobacco: Tobacco is known to make a person’s breath foul. One of the best things you can do to ensure a fresher breath is to cut down on your tobacco consumption! If possible, stop smoking or chewing tobacco in any form!
4. Don’t Eat Strong Foods: Food is what keeps us alive, but at the same time, food can also be the cause of a foul-smelling breath. When we chew our food, the food breaks down into smaller particles, some of which stay within the spaces in-between our teeth, while the rest is being absorbed within our bloodstream, eventually ending up in our lungs and making our breath malodorous!
While almost all kinds of foods can contribute to bad breath problems, there are certain strong foods which can make it all the more worse for you; so, it is only fitting that you avoid them! You may have heard that raw onions, raw garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, etc., are all good for your health. While I do agree with that statement, it is also true that all these foods share one common aspect: they all contribute to an offensive breath! Broccoli and cauliflower are like time bombs: you would experience nothing bad at the time of consuming them but later on, you would start burping which in turn would result in an unpleasant breath!
Raw onions and garlics, on the other hand, make your breath foul after a certain time!
Avoid processed and sugary fruit juices and foods! The sugar contained in these foods would make your breath worse than you could imagine!
You should also avoid any kind of dairy products (including milk) as well! Almost all kinds of milk products leave a whitish residue on the back and front of your tongue, which in turn contributes to bad breath!
Bottom-line, if you don’t want to invite bad breath, then avoid these foods, period!
If at all you cannot leave without these foods, you should brush your teeth immediately after eating them, followed by dental flossing and mouthwash!
Ideally, you should increase the intake of foods such as carrots, apples, celeries, etc., as they are known to fight bad breath. This, along with the Vitamin C fruits I suggested above, should ensure that you have a good breath throughout the day!
5. Don’t Forget to Practice Basic Oral Hygiene: It is a shame that people take great care about fashion but little care about their breath; no wonder why so many people suffer from bad breath problems! In order to treat bad breath issues properly, merely brushing your teeth is not enough, as I already pointed out! You should, in addition to brushing your teeth twice every day (or brushing after every meal, if you can), also:
a) Keep your tongue clean using a tongue scraper
b) Use an electric toothbrush if necessary. If you have braces and dentures, you should take proper care to ensure that they are cleaned and washed properly!
c) Gargle and rinse your mouth using a good mouthwash! Make sure that you don’t end up getting addicted and dependent on your mouthwash and don’t use it too often or in large amounts; keep in mind that almost all mouthwashes contain ethanol which can prove to be fatal for you if you use them too frequently; additionally, young people or people with a low body weight should not be using mouthwashes at all! One thing to remember is that using a mouthwash without following the other steps discussed in this article many not help you much!
d) Chew on – sugar-free gums containing mint or cinnamon, herbs such as spearmint, cloves, cinnamon, coriander, eucalyptus, cardamom, etc.
6. Don’t Avoid Exercising: Exercises can help you get rid of a lot of troubles, not the least of which being bad breath! Yet, very few people care to even walk a few miles per day! Ideally though, you should be doing something heavier that makes you exhale air continuously through your mouth, such as jogging, running, playing baseball, etc.
If you cannot or don’t want to exercise for some reason, you can turn to yoga for bad breath treatment! I guess you are probably laughing at me now, but there is nothing funny about using yoga to cure your breath; after all, venerable sages have long discovered the powerful effects of yoga centuries ago and been using it to get rid of digestive and respiratory troubles – things that are often the causes behind a malodorous breath!
One yoga exercise that can work wonders for you is pranayama! There are many different techniques of doing pranayama, but kapalbhati is the most useful of them, due to the extreme breathing techniques involved in it! First of all, you should sit on a chair (NOT a cozy couch) comfortably, stretch out your belly, then contract (like you have been hit in the gut by someone) and expand it (as if to exhale a lot of air) continuously for at least 50 times (if you are a beginner) or more! This exhalation would make the foul air of your mouth go away and your breath would become fresh!
7. Don’t Forget To Go For Regular Health Checkups: Along with following all the above steps, you should also visit a dentist at least twice or thrice a year – to ensure that you are properly maintaining a healthy oral hygiene, that you are not consuming certain medicines which could cause bad breath, and that you are not suffering from certain diseases that might make your breath stinky!
If you need more in-depth information on how to get rid of bad breath, [adrotate banner=”5″]