I had an office colleague once who had a terrible breath. He never did anything to get rid of it, and I believe that in reality he didn’t even know that he had a problem called halitosis. Every time I talked to him I would have to hold my breath out of fear of inhaling his foul breath! He was an otherwise nice man whose breath disgusted me to no end, and I could find no way to communicate this information to him in a way that won’t be construed as rudeness on my part. Then one day, I decided to drop a hint by offering him my mouth freshener chewing gum. He gladly accepted it but the next day he was back to square one. During the entire time I worked in that office he never made any effort to cure his halitosis. Perhaps he didn’t even get my hint!
I am pretty sure that you have met plenty such personalities in your life who are otherwise cool, bright people with one common problem – bad breath. Either they don’t know how to control their bad breath or simply make no efforts for the same. If you suffer from bad breath, I am sure that you must have seen people cover their noses under some pretext or other while giving you strange and annoying looks at the same time, or the more graceful ones who prefer standing at a distance while speaking with you. However, you don’t have to sit on this problem anymore! In this article I will tell you about five ways to control bad breath and in case you are already suffering from it, I will also discuss of ways of controlling it!
Basic Cleansing and Hygiene: A lot of people prefer to call it a day simply after brushing their teeth. Considering the amount and variety of food we eat in a day, this is just not sufficient. Along with brushing your teeth, you must also clean your tongue as well as floss your teeth well. People often forget that our gums and tongue are the major breeding grounds for bad breath bacteria; hence, by keeping these areas clean we will automatically be able to avoid bad breath! Last but not the least, use a quality mouthwash.
Hydration: Bad breath bacteria simply cannot breed in a wet or moist place. They will be able to breed only in a place that is dry. If you don’t drink at least seven to eight glasses of water per day, you are going to have a dry mouth, and then, inevitably, you will suffer from bad breath too because as I said halitosis bacteria finds it easy to breed in dry places! Therefore, you must always keep yourself hydrated all the time. At the same time, you should avoid any beverage that is a diuretic, such as tea, coffee, etc. You should also avoid alcohol as again, alcohol is notorious for dehydrating your body! Drinking carbonated soft drinks or soda are not at all recommended; these drinks contain a high amount of sugar and besides making you bloated and obese, they also offer ample food for the bad breath bacteria to thrive on! If you don’t like the bland taste of water you can add some lemon juice in it. Besides making your drink spicier, lemon is itself a good natural cure for halitosis! Other ways to keep bad breath away is by using chewing gums. Again, find a gum that is low on sugar or even better, sugarless! Chewing gum triggers saliva to keep your mouth moist and when you keep your mouth moist the bad breath bacteria won’t find a chance to breed in the mouth!
When we are talking about keeping yourself well hydrated, avoiding tobacco in any form is a must. For example, if you are a smoker, then no matter how many gulps of water you drink it is not going to alleviate your halitosis completely. Also, the foul odor of cigarettes is even worse than the odor of bad breath, and on top of that, smoking is also injurious for your lungs. Alcohol is equally bad for you. Both tobacco and alcohol reduce the production of saliva (saliva is what keeps the bad breath bacteria from thriving in your mouth by washing them away), which in turn worsens your halitosis!
Use Caution While Eating: There are certain kinds of foods that can not only trigger bad breath but also keep your breath foul for a long time, even if you brush your teeth right after eating. As such, it is much better to avoid such foods. If you are eating out, you should put in a request of not offering you any kind of food which is rich in spices, garlic, onion, etc. You should also ask for a couple of lemon wedges or parsley leaves along with your food, if they are not offered already! That way, once you are done with your food, you can get rid of your bad breath with the help of those parsley leaves or lemon wedges. Keep in mind that the same rule applies to your home as well.
Your diet should consist of foods that are low in both fat and sugar but high on fiber! Obviously this includes the green leafy vegetables well as whole bread but excludes the junk and fatty foods you find in your favorite deli. It also excludes the carbonated soft drinks as well as soda as they are all high on sugar (also, diet coke or diet soda is not as low on sugar content as you think!). Carbohydrates are also a must for your diet; a lot of people fear that carbohydrates result in weight gain but that’s not just true as long as you have it in moderation. With a complete lack of carbs in your diet your body will be forced to burn your fat deposits which in turn can produce a stinking smell and trigger bad breath automatically! Also, you should get your carbs from healthy foods such as potatoes, whole grains, as well as pasta, and not from the processed fruit juices or soft drinks. There is a difference between good carbs and bad carbs: while foods like pasta, whole grains and potatoes contain the good carbs, processed fruit juices and carbonated soft drinks contain the bad carbs. Consuming good carbs will improve your health, while the bad carbs will not only make your breath filthy but also increase your body weight!
Are you getting an adequate supply of vitamins through your diet? Checking this is a must for you. A diet must be rich in zinc, Vitamin C as well as all the important B vitamins in order to prepare your body toward fighting and controlling bad breath!
Change Your Bad Habits: Some adults, especially women, tend to continue their childhood habits of sucking their thumbs and nails even when they enter adulthood! Besides infecting your body with new bacteria and germs that reside in your thumb and nails, this practice also causes dry mouth. As you already know, dry mouth equals to bad breath. Therefore, please try to stop this habit NOW, or if you can’t, then you really need to see a counselor about this! I am NOT kidding!
Professional Help: Sometimes the basic home remedies I have listed above may not work for some people. Such people should not ignore bad breath though; rather, they should immediately consult with a qualified dentist about this matter. It is quite possible that the reason behind their bad breath goes deeper than basic hygiene and hydration issues. Perhaps they are suffering from some kind of chronic diseases of liver, kidney, gum, mouth, sinus, throat, etc., that is triggering this bad breath in their mouth. Your dentist should be able to identify the causes properly as well as prescribe appropriate medications for the same!
Did you know that bad breath can be caused by yeast infection? To give you an idea, if you find some kind of white coating on your tongue, scrape it. If the coating on your tongue is replaced with a reddened area, then you are suffering from oral rush or yeast infection. Such conditions should be treated by your physician using appropriate medications! Other than that, you can also get rid of this Candida fungus by consuming plain yogurt. Yogurt contains the good acidophilus bacteria which can keep Candida from breeding on your tongue!
Similarly, bad breath can be triggered by acid reflux. If you suffer from heartburn it usually means that you have acid reflux. While the acids of our stomach would normally move in one direction, it flows both ways in the body of an acid reflux sufferer; meaning that stomach acid not only flows from esophagus to our stomach but also vice versa! The foul odor of the stomach acid affects our breath, besides causing irritation in throat, triggering taste of bitter bile in mouth, heartburn, etc. Antacids are a quick fix, but for long term remedy, you should avoid fatty and greasy junk foods; in addition, you should also avoid alcohol, chocolate as well as caffeine. These foods not only worsen your digestion but also your breath!
Acid reflux sufferers should avoid sleeping immediately after eating, as this messes up with your digestion process, triggering acid reflux and causing bad breath! You should also eat your food in small portions rather than eating too much at once.
If nothing seems to work for you, check the internet for bad breath remedies. Believe it or not, there are some excellent remedies available out there for halitosis. Don’t go for the products which are based on synthesized chemicals; they do more harm than good; these bad breath products dehydrate you and actually worsen your bad breath condition! A good halitosis remedy is one which is totally natural, organic, and free from harsh chemicals that do more harm than good. Any organic or homeopathic treatment that is a proven cure for halitosis can work for you. The great advantage of using such a product is that you will not only be able to control bad breath and maintain fresh breath throughout the day, you should also be able to avoid instances of bad breath in future! For more information on such products, [adrotate banner=”5″].