Do you brush your teeth always, sometimes, seldom, or never? How would you rate your tooth brushing from 1-10, one as the lowest and ten as the highest? Whatever the answer is, let me assume that bad breath is something no one would want to have. This article will deal with bad breath causes and what one can do or avoid doing in order to have a fresh and good breath.
The mouth is the entry point of food. Because of this, food that is stuck on the teeth and tongue are the main causes of bad breath. So again, how often do you brush your teeth? Teeth that are not brushed often cause bacteria to form in the tongue and teeth. These bacteria produce sulfur that causes bad breath. The bacteria come in form of a whitish coating in the tongue or the yellow to brown coating in the teeth—tartar.
Aside from not brushing the teeth often enough, the kind of food one intake can also contribute to bad breath. Food like shawarma, onion rings, roasted garlic soup, and other food that has onion and garlic can also cause bad breath. These vegetables have a strong smell that even brushing would not easily take away. Oils from onion and garlic are brought to the lungs that make the air breathed out to have foul smell.
Vices like smoking and alcohol drinking also cause people to have bad breath. Cigarettes contain nicotine and tar that build up in the mouth and allow bacteria to form. Moreover, smoke that smokers breathe in goes into the lungs which mixes to the air that is breathed out. The smell of the smoke also stays in the tongue of the smoker causing bad breath.
Alcohol, on the other hand, causes bad breath because alcohol goes into the bloodstream once drank. When blood flows in the lungs, alcohol particles are included in it that causes the bad smell. Some of the alcohols that have the highest alcohol contents are the black label alcohols, beer, and wine.
Alcohol is also a content of many mouthwashes. Listerine Natural Citrus Mouthwash has 21.6% alcohol content. So it is a must that buyers look at the alcohol content of the mouthwashes they buy. This is to ensure that instead of having bad breath, their mouthwash can really make their breath fresh.
Apart from alcohol mixing in the bloodstream and smoke mixing to the air breathed out, drying the mouth is one of the effects of cigarette and alcohol. Saliva is the natural way of cleansing the mouth. Through it, foreign substances that come in the mouth are being neutralized; in this way, plaque formation will be lessened. So when saliva is not produced, a person suffers from dry mouth.
Dry mouth is one reason of bad breath. It is not only caused by cigarette and alcohol but also caused be medication. Anti-depressants, high-blood reducing medicines, and anti-histamines are medicines that cause dry mouth. On the other hand, having certain sicknesses cause bad breath. Some sicknesses are: pneumonia, bronchitis, diabetes, chronic acid problems, and liver and kidney problems.
As seen, food intake, vices, and medication are the main bad breath causes. Knowing these causes, a person can now be more aware of what he should and should not do in order be bad breath free. So the next time I’ll be asking you on how you would rate your dental care behavior, you would immediately give me a straight answer of 10.
Tags: halitosis, cause bad breath, bad breath causes
