We all know that morning breath can be a problem, and that sometimes during the day, we can eat a meal that causes bad breath or when we are sick we might have halitosis, but most of us don’t know why that happens. Let’s first look at some of the causes of bad breath, and then we can move on to discuss ways to combat bad breath for ourselves, and even explore some interesting ways to handle bad breath when we must be close to someone who suffers from it.
First, let’s start with morning breath. According to Bill Nye, the Science Guy, during the night, or rather, while we are sleeping, the flow of saliva slows. When this happens, our mouths will not receive as much oxygen as when we are awake and active. Because of this, anaerobic bacteria, the kind that doesn’t need oxygen to grow and breed, are produced in our mouths. When these bacteria are produced, they put off waste products that contain sulfur – which doesn’t smell so great – and that is the cause of bad morning breath.
Solving morning breath is pretty easy – you can wake and brush your teeth and the bad breath will disappear. Brushing your tongue also helps reduce the smell and can help keep your breath fresher during the day, or at least until your next meal.
If you’d like to try to prevent morning breath, you can take two steps: one, brush your teeth and especially your tongue right before going to bed, and two, drink a glass of water or gargle with clean water right before going to bed after you have brushed your teeth. This will eliminate as much bacteria as possible and help with bad morning breath when you wake.
Bacteria is not the only culprit for bad breath. There are a lot of different foods that can cause bad breath too. If you want to keep your breath fresh, you should avoid any foods that contain sulfur, such as onions. You’d be surprised if you look at the ingredients of a lot of processed foods how many of them contain onion or onion powder.
Other foods that cause bad breath problems are those high in protein and especially high protein foods that also contain starches or carbohydrates. Most of our desserts, such as cakes and pies, are culprits for bad breath. If you have the ability to brush your teeth and your tongue after a meal, then by all means, eat whatever you want and simply remove any bad breath by brushing your tongue and teeth. Not only will this combat bad breath by keeping bacteria from forming and breeding, but it’s also good oral hygiene and will make your mouth, teeth and gums healthier.
However, we know that one can’t always brush their teeth and tongue after every meal, so if you want to avoid bad breath when you are unable to brush immediately after a meal, stay away from strong spices, onions, garlic, eggs, or any foods with high protein and high starch content and you should be able to keep bad breath to a minimum until you are able to brush your teeth and tongue.
To help with bacteria build up in the mouth and to combat bad breath, it’s important to learn to properly clean the mouth. Brushing your teeth regularly is a good start, but there is more involved in keeping the mouth clean and fresh smelling. First, use a good anti-bacterial mouthwash and rinse and gargle with this anti-bacterial mouthwash before you do anything else. This will kill most of the surface bacteria.
The next step is to use a good floss and be sure to remove all food particles and residue between your teeth. Bacteria needs something to feed on, and food particles left in an improperly cleaned mouth will cause bad breath by giving bacteria something to breed in. Once you have flossed, rinse your mouth with some more anti-bacterial mouthwash, and now you are ready to brush your teeth.
Remember earlier when brushing your tongue was recommended? Well, you really want to pay close attention to brushing your teeth first, but not neglect brushing your tongue, where most bacteria dwell in the beginning. Brushing your teeth alone and neglecting to brush your gums and your tongue will help with bad breath, but it won’t eliminate bad breath completely. If you’d like, you can even buy tongue scrapers and special tongue brushes to clean your tongue thoroughly of bad breath causing bacteria, but this isn’t necessary to eliminate bad breath. Using your regular toothbrush and brushing your tongue with it is sufficient, just be sure to rinse your toothbrush well to clean it before storing it.
Be sure to use a good toothpaste and a good mouthwash. Any with antibacterial properties will help with bad breath more than those without. However, it’s important to note that many mouthwashes and toothpastes do contain sugar or sugar-like substances that can be food for bacteria, so it is very important after using any toothpaste or mouthwash product to thoroughly rinse your mouth with clean water after using any of these products to ensure bad breath doesn’t sneak up on you.
For a quick fix, there are breath mints, liquids, and ‘candy’ on the market today that will mask bad breath for a short time. However, these products contain sugar or starches that after the bad breath masking effect stops can actually cause bad breath. In a pinch, you can use breath mints and sprays for a quick fix, but if you have bad breath, your best bet is to brush your teeth and tongue as soon as possible.
So what do you do if someone you know and have to work close to or be in close proximity to has bad breath? This is a tough one. It’s one of those subject we don’t like to broach, and are never comfortable telling another person, especially one we don’t know well.
Chances are, if the person doesn’t normally have bad breath every day, simply telling them that they have bad breath probably won’t offend. In fact, most people would probably be grateful for you saying something so they don’t embarrass themselves further. However, if you simply cannot bring yourself to tell someone they have bad breath or if the person has bad breath consistently, there are a few things you can do to help with the problem.
First, you can be covert about it and simply take out a breath mint or breath candy and pop one in your mouth and then, as an after thought, you can offer one to the person with bad breath. Most people will take the offer, but some won’t. Hey, at least you tried. This should be good enough for you not to have to suffer their bad breath while you’re close to them.
If the person has bad breath all the time, and you can’t bring yourself to tell them, then you have a bit more of a serious problem. You could print out or find pamphlets about halitosis or bad breath and leave them laying around hoping the other person gets the hint. You might want to passive-aggressively suggest that you tried a new mouthwash that was great or a new toothpaste that really helped you with bad breath. Mention it in a, “Oh, you know what I found at the store the other day? I loved it!”
Or I suppose you could just avoid the person as much as possible and try not to stand too near them when you do have to be close to them, but this really does nothing to prevent the bad breath or help the other person with their bad breath issues.
A few years ago, several internet sites started offering a new service: Tell A Friend They Have Bad Breath!
These are sits, mostly that sell bad breath products, that will allow you to send an email from their site, completely anonymously, that very gently says that someone close to them and who cares about them didn’t want to hurt their feelings but thought they should know that there was a problem with their bad breath, and then it offers them suggestions or links to products to help with the bad breath issues.
This is a bit covert and perhaps chicken to do it this way, but it is a gentle and easier way to let someone know they have bad breath without embarrassing you or making them embarrassed in front of you. To find a service like this, simply enter the phrase: “tell a friend he has bad breath” “tell someone they have bad breath” “send a bad breath email anonymously” or some similar search phrase in your search engine and you will find plenty of links to sites that allow you to send this anonymous email.
Find one you like that handles the bad breath notice in a manner that suits you. Some are funny and humorous, some are serious and clinical, some are gentle and friendly, and some are downright rude and ugly about it – but the bottom line is, the person with bad breath will never know you are the one who sent it, and perhaps it will cause them to clear the air, so to speak, of their bad breath issues.
Bad breath is just a fact of life. We will all have it at one time or another, whether it’s because of something we ate, because of a medication that causes it, a change in diet, or through illness – whatever the reason for bad breath, we will all suffer it one day. Learning how to defeat bad breath before it starts and how to prevent it from ever starting will keep your mouth healthy, clean, and kissably fresh.
