Bad breath, formally known as Halitosis, affects a lot of people. While basically, it stems from a poor oral hygiene, sometimes it can also be caused by liver ailments, kidney troubles, acid reflux, sinusitis, gastro-intestinal problems, strep throat, or dental issues such as tooth decay, gum diseases, oral cancer, infected root canals, or a dry mouth! In this article I will tell you how to get rid of bad breath once and for all!
Your Diet is Everything: You know what they say: you are what you eat. This is as much true about the health of your internal organs as that of your teeth! If you eat crappy foods all the time, would it be any surprise if your breath too is always crappy? Hell, no! To be frank, you should be eating fruits and vegetables that keep you healthy by improving your digestion and keeping foul breath away from your mouth. Fruits rich in Vitamin C are great for fighting bad breath because of their acidic elements that kill the odor-causing bacteria developing in your mouth! Similarly, vegetables such as celeries and carrots are also well-known natural remedies for bad breath!
There are certain types of foods which you should try to avoid, if you want to maintain a fresh breath at all times, that is! One such food is meat. Meat has a tendency to get stuck in-between the spaces of your teeth and make your breath go foul; similarly, if you eat fish, its strong and stinky odor can affect your breath pretty badly; to be fair though, not everyone is in a portion to avoid these foods, in which case, they should brush and floss their teeth immediately after having any such food!
Same goes for milk and dairy products. Milk has a tendency to leave a whitish residue at the back of your tongue, which in turn results in offensive breath. In fact, if you scrape the back and front parts of your tongue with a spoon and then smell that whitish material, you would realize how foul it is! Imagine this whitish substance staying in your mouth for days, months and years! If consuming milk products is a must for you, please brush your teeth and clean your tongue with a tongue cleaner immediately after eating them; if possible, use a mouthwash to rinse your mouth as well!
Cheese is not always good for your breath. If you eat newly made cheese, it can certainly help make your breath fresh. Old and stinky cheese, on the other hand, can cause bad breath troubles!
Onion and garlic are known for their strong door; if you eat them boiled, they won’t affect your breath much, but consuming them in raw form can indeed result in a malodorous breath! If you don’t believe me, just ask someone in your household – preferably someone you trust to speak honestly and openly – to smell your breath a couple of hours after you have a meal containing raw onions and/or garlic; see what they say!
As a blanket rule, you should make sure that your mouth never goes dry, except of course when you sleep at night; when you sleep, the flow of saliva in your mouth is reduced to a considerable extent, resulting in a dry mouth and foul breath on the next morning; honestly, there is not much you can do about it really, except brushing your teeth as soon as you wake up! But that apart, you should keep your body hydrated all the time by drinking plenty of water throughout the day, starting with a glass of water early in the morning.
In addition, you should avoid, or at least reduce the consumption of, foods that make your body dehydrated, such as alcohol, tea, coffee, etc.
Post-Meal Smoking Kills: Cigarettes are bad – not just for your lungs, but also for your breath! When you eat a meal, your breath turns a bit foul anyway (depending on what you have eaten), thanks to the food particles that get stuck in between your teeth and on your tongue surface. On top of that, when you start smoking, your breath becomes worse because the chemicals that get released in your mouth during smoking makes your mouth become dry! Therefore, if possible, don’t smoke cigarettes after a meal.
It is not just smoking that affects a person’s breath negatively; chewing tobacco in any form can also result in an offensive breath!
How to Maintain Proper Oral Hygiene: You may not realize it, but your mouth contains a lot of odor-causing germs and microbes. Whenever you eat any kind of food, these germs also get their due from your food! If you brush your teeth regularly, then you basically take the food away from these germs by removing all the food particles stuck in your mouth. As a result, your breath becomes clean and fresh as mint! Most people brush only once in twenty-four hours; however, I would suggest that you brush your teeth at least twice a day, or even better, after each and every meal (including even light refreshments such as potato chips)!
However, in order to keep your mouth and breath squeaky-clean all the time, mere brushing is just not enough; you should also keep your tongue clean! If you have never cleaned your tongue before, chances are that a lot of food articles, dead skin cells, germs and microbes have been deposited on the rough surface of your tongue for years! Letting this sh*t stay and rot on your tongue can cause your breath to go foul! Use a good tongue cleaner to scrape the surface of your tongue at the time of brushing!
As I already pointed out in this article, bad breath is not always the result of a dirty mouth; the cause behind your offensive breath might be buried several layers deep! Who knows, you may be suffering from serious dental diseases such as tooth and gum decay! Just as you need to maintain your two-wheeler or car regularly in order to keep it running, similarly, you should make regular trips to your local dentist in order to take proper care of your teeth. In addition to pointing out the reason behind your malodorous breath, a dentist would also help clean the tartar and plaque from your mouth, thus preventing your gums and teeth from being damaged anymore!
Flossing your teeth is as important as brushing – more so if you are addicted to stuff such as alcohol – which makes your mouth become dry and leaves a stinky smell in your breath! If you are following any special diet then mint floss would be your best option. The great thing about mint floss is that it not only takes away the foul odor from your mouth, but also leaves a smell of fresh mint in your breath!
You should also keep a good quality mouthwash in your arsenal. As you might know already, foul breath is often caused by bacteria that reside in-between the spaces of your teeth, on the surface of your tongue, and generally, all around your mouth! Obviously, you can get rid of bad breath by killing this bacteria! Most decent mouthwashes contain an ingredient called cetylpyridinium chloride which is believed to be responsible for killing this kind of bacteria!
Usually, you would want to wash your mouth with a mouthwash at least two-three times a day – especially, after each and every meal you have! The general practice involves taking a particular amount (as suggested by your dentist) of the mouthwash in your mouth, gargling your mouth with it for about twenty to thirty seconds, and then spitting out the liquid!
There are both cheap and expensive mouthwash products available in the market. Obviously, most of the top brands would charge you an arm and a leg for a mouthwash, but there is no need to shell out so much money on this. A decent mouthwash should not cost a lot more than your regular toothpaste. In fact, mouthwashes can be purchased from the same shops which sell other oral health products such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.
Most mouthwashes contain a fair amount of alcohol (believed to have strong antiseptic properties; alcohol can also be found in many aftershave lotions). I would suggest buying an alcohol-free mouthwash though, if you can! If you are not sure about which mouthwash to use, ask your dentist; also, don’t forget to take advantage of any special offer/coupon code that can save you a few bucks!
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