Posts filed under 'Bad Breath Articles'
Bad breath in children can be fairly serious, many people suffer from bad breath, and bad breath in children can be just as bad. There are several factors which may influence the production of bad breath, and some of these are particularly likely to cause bad breath in children.
Depending on their age, children can have a habit of putting things up their noses, which may become lodged and lead to bad breath. Children have been known to stuff peas and other small objects in their nasal passages. If there is a suspicion of this, it is probably best to allow a doctor to probe and remove the foreign object. There may be an indicator of this activity if there is a discharge from the nose. It’s also been reported that small swallowed objects can become lodged in the passages and cause bad breath.
Another way in which children are likely to encourage bad breath is in the matter of oral cleanliness. It’s fairly well established that children are not necessarily fastidious in keeping their teeth and mouths clean, and the presence of old food may provide a good breeding ground for the bacteria that cause decomposition and smelly breath. Children should always be encouraged and taught to maintain the highest standards of oral hygiene, as this is a habit that they will carry with them through their lives.
All the usual causes of bad breath have to be considered as well as those specific to children in determining the cause of any particular outbreak. These would include dry mouth, which creates an environment conducive to the bacteria flourishing. While it should be expected that children would not be so prone to bad breath from chewing tobacco, or from drinking alcohol, they are more prone to diseases that affect the saliva glands, and to getting respiratory or throat and mouth infections. This would also cause a lot of breathing through the mouth, which would aggravate the drying effect.
Post nasal drip is a particular problem found in young children which can cause bad breath in children. The bacteria causing the smelly breath tend to be at home on the back of the tongue, and this is exactly where the nasal drip concentrates. The nasal drip itself is a chemical compound that is reported from research to act as a fuel to the bacteria, causing the bad breath in children. It contains protein made up of amino acids that are broken down to hydrogen sulfide and other smells.
Bad breath in children can be dealt with, but usually it takes the initiative of parents and adults to notice the bad breath in children and deal with it as appropriate.
November 2nd, 2007
Dealing with bad breath can be really tough. If you are reading this article, you probably have a suspicion that you may be dealing with bad breath. What are the signs that you are dealing with bad breath, and trying to find a way of dealing with bad breath?
It’s extremely difficult to know whether you have bad breath, which makes dealing with bad breath harder. If you try cupping your hand over your face and smelling the result, you’ll probably just end up smelling your hand. We can’t generally smell our breath, as we would find it hard to detect other smells if our breath was the dominant smell to us – it is a natural function to filter out our own smell. However, if people turn their heads when you talk to them, or offer you mints, it’s likely that you have a problem. You’ll need to start dealing with bad breath.
Mouthwashes can seem to help in dealing with bad breath, but the results are only temporary, and are really just a covering up of the problem.
Assuming that you are otherwise healthy, then dealing with bad breath may be possible without a physician or dentist getting involved. You shouldn’t hesitate to involve a professional, however, if you find that you have other symptoms, such as sore gums, or infections.
The majority of bad breath cases arise out of the bacteria in the mouth, which create sulfurous compounds that are smelly. These bacteria are required for our normal functioning, as they pre-digest food before it passes to the stomach, but sometimes they can become overactive, resulting in bad breath. The bacteria are anaerobic, which means “without oxygenâ€, so they do not need or want oxygen to flourish – saliva contains oxygen, so a lack of saliva, or dry mouth, will create a better environment for the bacteria and lead to more chance of bad breath.
If you have a dry mouth, then you should find some relief dealing with bad breath if you can identify and deal with the cause of the dry mouth. Sometimes it will be simple – morning breath will commonly arise because of breathing through the mouth while asleep. If you have allergies and take antihistamines, they are probably causing a dry mouth, and you may want to try and find an alternative method of relieving the allergies. Other recommendations include making sure that you drink enough water, not drinking too much alcohol, and not smoking, all of which can affect your saliva production.
Another method of dealing with bad breath from the mouth bacteria is to brush both the roof of the mouth and the tongue while brushing your teeth. It should go without saying that oral hygiene is important in dealing with bad breath, and you should brush and floss regularly.
October 26th, 2007
The cures for bad breath that you use will depend on several factors. The cures for bad breath depend on how bad it is and what the precise symptoms are. For instance, cures for bad breath in the morning, commonly called “morning breathâ€, which results from sleeping with the mouth open and drying out the mouth, which creates a environment in which the bacteria thrive are not easily treated. There is little point looking for cures for bad breath about the method of breathing while sleeping – but this may not be a large problem, as the bad breath will be worst first thing in the morning, and may diminish later in the day, meaning cures for bad breath are less needed.
Generally, as mentioned above, a dry mouth can cause an environment that encourages the growth of the bacteria that cause bad breath. The bacteria are natural and necessary for our normal function. They pre-process food on the way to the stomach, and so it is not an option to try to eliminate the bacteria. Cures for bad breath will try to reduce their activity.
One way of keeping a more moist mouth, which is one of the simple cures for bad breath, is simply to drink more water. If we are tending to dehydration, then the mouth will get drier. Various other activities with the mouth also add to the drying effect. Smoking is one action that should be avoided, and not just for this reason, as the general deleterious effects are well documented. Drinking alcohol also dries out the mouth.
The bacteria are active with a protein rich diet, so reducing your protein intake helps to keep their activity in control. This means eating only a modest amount of meat and sticking to a low fat diet rich in vegetables and fruits. If you are accustomed to skipping meals, whether from lack of time or a desire to reduce weight, try to adjust to more regular mealtimes, even if the “meal†turns out to be just a snack. Chewing food increases saliva flow, and suppresses the bacterial activity.
An obvious one of the cures for bad breath is to maintain good mouth hygiene. This requires regular brushing to remove plaque and food particles after each meal, so keep a toothbrush at work if necessary. When brushing your teeth, also clean the roof of the mouth and the tongue with the brush and toothpaste, this will help to dislodge too much build-up of the smell production. Flossing between the teeth should be done once a day.
If you try all the items mentioned above with little effect, or you have a chronic bad breath problem, you need more sever cures for bad breath, so see your dentist or doctor to find out what other action is needed.
October 19th, 2007
If you are seeking bad breath treatment, your bad breath treatment should probably start with a visit to your dentist. Bad breath treatment in many cases is related to oral hygiene and disease, and your dentist will advise you to visit your physician for bad breath treatment if the smell is not related to oral health.
If you are in the habit of visiting the dentist at regular intervals, such as every six months which is generally recommended, then keeping up your oral cleanliness in between visits will generally help significantly in reducing the risk of bad breath. Your daily regime should include brushing after every meal, including brushing the roof of the mouth and the tongue, if you have already identified a problem. You can use a standard toothbrush and toothpaste. Daily flossing is also important for bad breath treatment in keeping up the standard of oral hygiene.
Your dentist may refer you to a periodontist, who is a specialist in gum disease (periodontal disease) for bad breath treatment.
Other conditions which may require medical intervention include various diseases and illnesses, particularly respiratory and nasal problems. One cause of bad breath is a nasal drip, which impacts on the mouth’s bacteria at the back of the mouth and provides a protein rich source which stimulates the bacteria causing the bad breath. It goes without saying that you should seek professional advice if you believe that you have an infection going on.
On the other hand, if you suffer generally from bad breath, there are some things that you can do for yourself which may reduce or eliminate the problem.
Firstly, you should become more aware of what enters your mouth. Smelly foods, containing garlic or onions for example, are likely to cause a bad breath occurrence until they are eliminated naturally from your system, and a doctor’s visit for bad breath treatment would seem inappropriate. If you smoke, this is likely to cause bad breath, and the answer to this is equally obvious.
Anytime that your mouth becomes dry, this encourages the bacteria which can cause bad breath. Bad breath treatment involves keeping your mouth more moist by ensuring that you drink plenty of water and eat regularly, which stimulates the production of saliva. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation, as that has a mouth drying effect overall.
Mouthwashes may appear to helpful for bad breath treatment, but they do so only temporarily, masking the smell. Be aware that when looking for bad breath treatment, that many mouthwashes have an alcohol content, which will dry out the mouth, as noted above.
October 12th, 2007
There are several bad breath causes, and if you have a real problem with smelly breath you may want to consult your physician about those bad breath causes. The following is general advice, and refers to the likeliest bad breath causes.
The principal bad breath cause is associated with bacteria in the mouth. This can flourish when the saliva flow in the mouth is reduced. Saliva neutralizes the acids produced by plaque, and washes away the dead cells. Saliva also performs the very necessary task of flushing out the mouth, and removing food particles, so any reduction in saliva flow inhibits this action, becoming a bad breath cause.
Saliva can be reduced for a number of reasons. Some of these are easily preventable, and others are not. The flow of saliva reduces naturally as we get older, making us more prone to bad breath. Also when we are dehydrated, the moisture in the mouth reduces naturally. Another natural cause of dry mouth is breathing through the mouth, which is particularly prevalent with some people when asleep and snoring. This contributes to the “morning breath†syndrome.
Certain diseases and illnesses can similarly contribute to bad breath. Any infection that affects the respiratory tract can be a cause of bad breath, as well as many other diseases.
Some medications can cause dry mouth. The most common is probably the antihistamine, taken to relieve allergies. Some others include high blood pressure and depression medicines. Other things that can be ingested that affect the dryness of the mouth include alcohol and mouthwashes that contain alcohol.
Cigarette smoking is also a very quick way to dry out the mouth. For many reasons unrelated to bad breath, it is wise to avoid smoking, as has been documented extensively elsewhere. With a predisposition to bad breath, however, the habit of smoking virtually guarantees that you will suffer from bad breath.
The bacteria that cause bad breath are naturally occurring in the mouth. They are anaerobic, which means “without oxygenâ€. As saliva provides oxygen the lack of saliva with a dry mouth makes a more favorable environment for the bacteria to increase, aggravating the bad breath.
The bacteria create sulfurous compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide (the bad egg smell) which are the cause of the smelly breath. The bacteria assist in the digestive process by starting the breakdown of proteins. Thus another bad breath cause is a high protein diet, which feeds the bacteria.
You should be able to identify your bad breath cause but if you can’t, seeking professional help to fix your bad breath cause is recommended.
October 5th, 2007
There have been many bad breath remedies suggested for bad breath, and not all of them are based in fact. The following are some examples of bad breath remedies that are not recommended – in fact, they are bad “bad breath remediesâ€!
Use a mouthwash containing alcohol. This is suggested because of its immediate apparent effect on smelly breath. In reality this in one of the worst bad breath remedies, as one of the main causes of bad breath is the drying out of the mouth. Saliva cleanses the mouth and washes away some of the particles which may cause odor. Alcohol tends to dry out the mouth, and the best that a mouthwash can do is provide some temporary masking of the smell, so avoid it when looking for bad breath remedies.
Drink alcohol. See above, the alcohol dries out the mouth and causes or aggravates bad breath.
Use breath mints. This again is a temporary trick to mask the smell. The long lasting candy is fundamentally a bad idea, as the sugar content attacks the teeth and can also feed the bacteria. The bacteria will process the sugar and thrive, creating more sulfide compounds, the cause of the bad breath.
Chew gum. This remedy can be of use, but the majority of gum on the market contains sugar, and the same problem occurs as with breath mints. The plus side of chewing gum is that it does stimulate the production of saliva, and this is a positive factor in the fight against bad breath. If special sugarless gum is chosen, this remedy may assist.
Chew mint chewing tobacco. Smokeless tobacco is, for many reasons, a terrible thing to chew in the best of circumstances. Many studies have proved the link with oral cancer, and it will also cause loss of mouth tissue. There is the temporary relief of stimulating saliva production, but this is a poor reason to hurt the body so extensively.
Take a stomach treatment. There is a natural association between eating smelly foods, such as garlic or onions, and smelly breath. It’s true that the strong smell of these foods is absorbed into the bloodstream and exhaled through the lungs until it is eliminated. This is not generally the cause of bad breath, however, and will only occur temporarily, so this is not a cure for chronic bad breath.
As mentioned at the start, these bad breath remedies above are generally not effective, and can be deleterious. For better bad breath remedies, consult your physician or a specialist, they can suggest the best bad breath remedies.
September 28th, 2007
There are many ways that you can get rid of bad breath, or at least reduce its impact. How to get rid of bad breath depends on what causes the it in the first place, and if you have any doubts, or the problem seems chronic, it would be wise to consult your dentist or physician to get rid of bad breath. This can ensure that the bad breath is not symptomatic of other problems that should be addressed. For instance, you could have periodontal problems (gum disease), and even diabetes can cause breath odor. Trying to get rid of bad breath doesn’t work if these major issues aren’t addressed first.
Having said that, generally the causes of bad breath are well known and can be addressed by applying the following admittedly general advice to get rid of bad breath. These are appropriate to the most common problem, which is caused by mouth bacteria creating a smell as it breaks down food consumed.
Firstly, if bacteria are responsible for the smell, wouldn’t removing or killing the bacteria alleviate the bad breath problem? This is not a practical answer, as the bacteria are naturally occurring and required by the body to pre-process food before it passes to the stomach. We can discourage the extent of activity of the bacteria by various means, however, and this will reduce the problem.
The bacteria thrive on protein rich foods, so reducing the amount of meat consumed and increasing instead fruit and vegetable intake is a benefit and lessens bad breath. You may also want to consider this action for general health reasons.
The other major contributor to bacteria action is a dry mouth. The bacteria are anaerobic, which literally means without oxygen, and saliva provides oxygen, so a lack of saliva encourages growth. Saliva can be reduced if you breathe through the mouth, as for example when you sleep, and this causes “morning breathâ€. Other mouth drying activities include missing meals, drinking alcohol and not drinking enough water to stay hydrated.
If you are in the habit of eating foods rich in garlic, onions or other strong smelling fare, then the answer to reducing a bad breath problem should be fairly obvious. This type of smell is transferred to the blood and thence to the lungs, where it is exhaled. The smell will stay until expelled from the body.
Pay close attention to your dental hygiene to help get rid of bad breath. It’s worth brushing not only your teeth but also the surface of your tongue and the roof of your mouth to reduce odor and almost totally get rid of bad breath sometimes. Daily flossing will remove food and debris, and should help get rid of bad breath.
September 21st, 2007
Sometimes, bad breath out of nose appears to be the source of bad breath. Bad breath out of nose can be difficult to identify, as the nose and mouth are so close together, particularly if the problem is bad breath in children. However, if this is the case, there are some possibilities and pointers to the particular causes that may be to blame for the bad breath out of nose.
In the case of young children, there is a propensity to explore their environment by tactile means. This may result in small parts or food being lodged in the nose, where it can gradually deteriorate and cause malodorous smells. If this is suspected, it is probably best to check with your physician, as the piece will be difficult to remove. There may also be the symptom of some discharge from the nose, which would confirm the source of the problem.
Another cause of smelly breath seeming to come from the nose is that an interior nasal discharge or post nasal-drip can fuel the bacteria in the mouth that are associated with the production of the smell. The bacteria tend to be towards the back of the mouth, which means that the nasal drip will fall on the microorganisms and may produce the problem. The contents of the nasal drip contain proteins, which are directly available to form smelly compounds – this is the reason for the “sick smell†associated with infections.
It must be said that odors that come totally from the nose are the exception. Usually there is a smell from the mouth as well as the nasal odor. When found, these cases are usually the result of physical abnormalities or particular infections.
Sometimes bad breath does not come directly from the bacteria in the mouth. Bad breath out of nose can also be caused by something that is eaten, such as garlic or onions. While these foods can directly react with the bacteria in the mouth to cause the smell, they are also absorbed in the stomach and then spread through the body in the bloodstream. The lungs will absorb the smell from the blood, and exhale it. If the mouth is closed, then this smell will come from the nose.
If you have a problem with bad breath out of nose, it would be wise to consult a physician or specialist. They can help to cure bad breath out of nose and in general.
September 14th, 2007
o discover a cure for bad breath, you need to understand where your bad breath cause is coming from. There are a few mechanisms that can cause a bad breath problem, and the correct cure for bad breath will depend on what the particular source of the smell is.Often, the bad breath is created in the mouth, and comes from the good naturally occurring bacteria which pre-digest food. If these bacteria are too active, they create an odor; so reducing the bacteria is key to a cure for bad breath.
The bacteria are anaerobic, which means that they don’t need oxygen to grow. Saliva contains oxygen, and thus restricts the growth, becoming a natural cure for bad breath. Saliva will flush out food and other debris in the mouth that contributes to the bacteria’s food supply, so will moderate the bacteria in that way, too. So it can be seen that a shortage of saliva is a cause of bad breath.
The cure for bad breath if it comes from this source is to increase the saliva, or not take actions that result in a reduction in saliva production. Some medications, such as antihistamine, can cause a dry mouth, and you may need to speak with your doctor about alternatives. If you typically don’t drink much water, then this can support the tendency to dry mouth. The standard recommendation to drink eight glasses a day would assist in keeping the mouth moist.
The other stimulation for the bacteria is protein, which feeds them. Eating a quantity of meat or other protein source is likely to aggravate the bad breath problem. A carefully controlled diet would reduce the bad breath problem. Any infection, particularly post nasal drip, may cause problems by feeding the bacteria, and the cure for bad breath could be found by your physician.
Bad breath may be a sign of a medical disorder, including various infections, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, and liver or kidney ailments. The cure for bad breath in these cases is not a general answer as noted above, but would have to be taken up with your physician as part of curing the problem.
Bad breath may come as a result of smoking or chewing tobacco. The cure for bad breath in this case is obvious, and it’s worth noting that there are many organizations and medicines that can assist in giving up the habit.
Bad breath can also be caused by poor oral hygiene. You should brush your teeth at least twice a day, if not after every meal, and floss between your teeth once a day, otherwise food will rot and may cause bad breath as well as tooth and / or gum problems.
Your cure for bad breath might be little different from those above, but in general, any cure for bad breath involves the reduction of bacteria in one way or another.
September 7th, 2007
There are not many things more embarrassing than bad breath. The feeling of knowing what other people are getting a whiff of when you talk to them. Finding a bad breath remedy is on many people’s minds, but finding one of the bad breath remedies that works immediately and effectively is not is not easy.
The doctor is the first place you would seek help about your bad breath. Your doctor can give you good advice on an appropriate bad breath remedy and diagnose any underlying medical conditions that could be contributing to your case of bad breath. However, doctor’s have their limits too, and many of them can only give you practical, basic advice on how to deal with bad breath. These bad breath remedies are well known and require only a slight change, an upgrade if you like, in your daily routine and habits.
Drink Water, A Lot
This method of preventing bad breath is not only easy, but it will improve your overall health as well. A dry mouth is the perfect breeding ground for the bacteria that produce bad breath. These bacteria are naturally occurring, but when there are too many, it stinks. Water is perfect for killing bacteria, well not killing them, but certainly making it hard for them to spread. The bacteria thrive when there is little or no oxygen around, and when you fill your mouth with water, you are also filling it with oxygen.
If, for whatever reason, you do not like drinking water, then learn to drink it. A drop of lemon to water can make it a little more palatable. Otherwise, vegetables are rich in water and low in carbohydrates, so you can get a lot of water and stay healthy too.
Change Eating Habits
Meat is full of protein. Those bacteria in your mouth turn those proteins into pungent odors. Eating a lot of meat, whether for weight loss, or weight gain, will give you worse breath. Make sure you brush after every meal, then you need to floss, and finally you need to wash it all out with mouthwash.
If you are on a high protein diet, are you taking it too far? You don’t need to cut out all carbohydrates to go high-protein, vegetables are full of water and most of them are very low in carbohydrates too, fruits have a lot of natural sugar, so eat less of them to keep caloric intake down.
So, get a big glass of water, whip up a salad and enjoy the feast. And better breath.
September 5th, 2007
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