Are You Suffering From Bad Breath or Halitosis?

April 17, 2009 – 10:51 am

Are your friends starting to slowly step back from you and distancing themselves from you? If they are you may be suffering from halitosis or, commonly known as bad breath.

If you don’t particularly take care of it and find solutions to bad breath, there’s going to be more repeats of those circumstances and you don’t want that, because you might end up without friends at all. The problem with halitosis is you can’t easily learn if you are already a sufferer. The reason is you can’t possibly smell your breath via your own nose. It may be someone else who tells you before you find out you have bad breath. Sometimes, bad breath can become so strong smelling that even from a fair distance people can still smell it.

There are many causes of halitosis.

People suffering from bad breath usually have problems practicing the proper oral dental hygiene. Not properly brushing and flossing teeth leave food and beverage particles in between the teeth and around the mouth lining. The particles breed bad bacteria, which then causes your breath to smell.

Having a dry mouth is another cause of halitosis. When people don’t hydrate their mouth often by drinking lots of water, there are changes occurring inside. First, the bacteria that are already accumulated inside the mouth and the saliva become much more concentrated. The saliva tends to alter its acid or base balance, which become a favorite of the bad bacteria to be their breeding grounds. As your mouth continues to be dry, the changing of the acid or base balance evaporates into the air causing that stinking bad breath smell.

You also suffer from bad breath when there is a yellow or white film visible on your tongue. This happens when there is a nasal mucous that drops into the areas of the tongue. The nasal mucous itself has bad bacteria and is odorous such that when it mixes with the saliva and the lining of the mouth, it turns your breath smelly too. Removing the film on the tongue by brushing or scraping it usually does not cure the problem. A treatment must be sought to correct the root of the problem.

People taking medications can also suffer from symptoms of bad breath. Often, taking medication causes you to have bad tastes such as bitter, metallic, and sour tastes in your mouth. This also causes the bad bacteria to develop and produce bad breath. Bad tastes are also experienced when there are dental infections, sinus drainage, white nodules from the tonsils, and destroyed dental restorations. All of these situations cause reduction in the salivary flow and bad breath can develop.

If brushing, flossing, and mouth rinsing do not make a difference in treating your halitosis, there is no better solution but to visit your dentist or physician to ensure the problem is correctly diagnosed and treated.