If you have ever had halitosis (bad breath), you know it can cause you to feel self-conscious and embarrassed. And while the odor is typically a primary concern, determining what is causing it is a task we can assist you with resolving. This is especially true when you experience bad breath outside of those times when you've just consumed pungent foods and drinks such as coffee, garlic or raw onions. For example, it is quite a different scenario to have family members, friends, co-workers or even total strangers consistently complaining or using body language to denote your bad breath. If the later best describes your situation — and be honest with yourself — then you need a thorough dental exam to discover the ultimate cause (or causes) of your halitosis. This is especially important because so many people are unaware that there can be numerous oral and/or general health concerns triggering their bad breath.

Most unpleasant mouth odors arise from the more than 600 types of bacteria found in the average mouth, with several dozens of these bacteria being the primary culprits for producing foul odors. And while food particles left between teeth can be key contributors to bad breath, the tongue or more specifically, the back of the tongue, is the most common location. Dry mouth is another cause for bad breath, as evident by the dreaded morning breath we all experience from mouth breathing as we sleep. Bad breath is also caused by certain medical conditions such as liver disease, lung infections, diabetes, kidney infections or failure and cancer.

The good news is that we can work with you to develop an effective treatment for your bad breath. And if necessary, we can work with your physician on a total treatment plan should your condition be due to health conditions outside your mouth. However, if your bad breath originates in your mouth, we may recommend any or all of the following to return your mouth to optimal oral health:

• Oral hygiene instruction to learn the proper ways to brush, floss, scrape your tongue and use mouthwashes
• Denture hygiene instruction for proper cleaning and maintenance of both full and partial dentures and bridgework
• Periodontal (gum) therapy that includes professionally cleaning your teeth (scaling), smoothing your teeth's root surfaces (root planning) and possible antibiotic therapy
• Removal of tooth decay where large, open cavities (caries) are present
• Repair of broken fillings
• Removal of wisdom teeth (third molars) with gum flaps
• Treatment of yeast infections (candidasis)

To learn more about the causes and treatments for halitosis, read the Dear Doctor article, “Bad Breath — More Than Just Embarrassing.”

Ready To Take The Next Step?

If you want to address your own concerns with bad breath, contact us today to schedule a consultation for an examination and treatment plan. You will find yourself smiling and laughing more once you are confident you have a clean, healthy mouth.

In today's fast-paced society, nearly everyone is looking for reliable solutions to resolve problems almost instantly. Unfortunately, in many situations, bad breath cannot be cured that quickly. This is why we want to provide you with the following rules of thumb for treating your bad breath.

• Use a soft-bristled brush and a proper technique to clean your teeth at least twice a day, in the morning when you wake and before you go to bed.
• Floss your teeth at least once daily to remove the bacterial plaque and food particles between your teeth, as these are two known causes of bad breath and tooth decay.
• Clean your tongue, as it can often be the main culprit with too many odor-producing bacteria living on its surface. To clean your tongue, use a tongue scraper obtainable from a local drug or discount store, or brush your tongue with your toothbrush. Remember, a healthy tongue should be pink in color and not have a yellowish or brownish coating.
• Chew a sugar-free gum that contains xylitol, a natural, sugar-free sweetener that actually has been shown to help prevent caries (cavities) while improving your breath.
• Change your eating and drinking habits. Drinking plenty of tap water will not only keep your mouth hydrated (a dry mouth is another cause of bad breath), but it also can help prevent caries if you live in an area with fluoridated water. And by adding plenty of crunchy fruits and veggies such as carrots, celery and apples, you stimulate the production of saliva; thus keeping your mouth moist and rinsed out.

And last but not least, you can contact us today to schedule a consultation for an examination, cleaning and treatment plan. Or, you can learn more when you read the Dear Doctor article, “Bad Breath — More Than Just Embarrassing.”

More than 2,000 years ago, an ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, often called the father of Western medicine, devised a mouth rinse of herbs and wine to sweeten bad breath. This problem has been around a long time, and it is still a major problem for many people. According to some studies it is one of the three main reasons people seek dental treatment.

Here are some facts you may not know about bad breath:

• Bad breath is sometimes called halitosis, which comes from the Latin halitus (exhalation) and the Greek osis (a condition or disease-causing process).
• Chronic bad breath is usually caused by certain types of oral bacteria. These particular bacteria are present in about 25% of the population.
• Bad breath has spawned a major industry in the United States. Americans spend nearly three billion dollars a year on gum, mints, and mouth rinses to sweeten their breath. About 60% of women and 50% of men say they use breath freshening products.
• Diseases in the oral cavity such as tooth decay and periodontal (gum) disease can often cause bad breath. If either of these diseases are your cause for bad breath, treatment would be necessary to eliminate this problem.
• The tongue is the most common location for bad breath. Bacteria are relatively sheltered on the back of the tongue, where they live on remnants of food, dead skin cells and post-nasal drip. These bacteria can generate volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) that are also found in decaying animal or vegetable matter. VSCs are known by an unpleasant rotten egg smell.
• Bad breath can also be caused by dry mouth (xerostomia). This condition affects millions of people and can result from smoking, alcohol or coffee drinking, and it is sometimes a side effect of medications. Another cause may be mouth breathing.
• Halitosis can also originate in other parts of the mouth besides the tongue. These include inter-dental (between teeth) and sub-gingival (under the gums) areas.
• When people are starving (and sometimes when they are dieting to lose weight), their bodies begin burning their fats causing their breath to develop the smell of ketones — which smell like acetone, similar to nail polish remover. If people are not eating or drinking the coating on their tongue increases as well, making VSCs more prominent.

At our office, we want to fight bad breath or halitosis by making sure our patients understand how to clean their teeth, gums, the back of the tongue, and dentures.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your questions about bad breath. You can also learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Bad Breath: More than just embarrassing.”