10 Tips to Achieve Better Breath

Bad breath can be a bit embarrassing, especially if you are trying to impress others. It’s a common problem but one that can often be easily solved. Because bad breath is often caused by underlying conditions in the mouth, Gardena Dental Care can help! Meanwhile, here are some tips to get better breath that you can try on your own.

What Is Halitosis?

Halitosis is the medical name for bad breath and is an official diagnosis. Because bad breath can be indicative of an underlying health condition, it’s important to determine the underlying cause. In most cases, halitosis is benign as well as preventable.

What Are the Symptoms of Halitosis?

There’s no “bad breath meter” that is used to determine exactly what level of bad breath becomes halitosis. It’s a bit subjective, but halitosis is considered to be smelly breath that is “beyond a socially acceptable level."

What Causes Bad Breath?

Bad breath has a variety of causes, from certain types of food like garlic and onions to oral health conditions such as cavities or gum disease. Bacteria buildup in the mouth can also cause bad breath. Dental appliances such as dentures or retainers can also cause bad breath if they are not properly cleaned, because bacteria and even fungus can grow on them. Smoking and tobacco chewing can also cause bad breath.

What Health Conditions Can Cause Bad Breath or Halitosis?

For stubborn bad breath that doesn’t seem to go away no matter what you try, visit us at Gardena Dental Care. Some chronic or even acute underlying health conditions can also cause bad breath. These health issues can include a serious infection, kidney or liver dysfunction, or diabetes.

What Is Dry Mouth and Why Does It Cause Bad Breath?

Dry mouth is formally known as xerostomia. Lack of sufficient saliva can cause problems because the self-cleaning mechanism of the mouth is not working. Saliva serves a lot of purposes such as cleansing the mouth of debris and food particles. When those particles are left in the mouth, bacteria can grow and cause bad breath. Dry mouth has many causes, such as specific medicines, or disorders of the salivary gland disorder. Mouth breathing can also cause dry mouth.

How Can I Reduce Bad Breath?

Reducing bad breath is often simply a matter of making some lifestyle changes. This is assuming that no underlying health condition is causing the halitosis. Here are some places to start with reducing bad breath:

1. Reduce Stinky Foods

We all know the obvious culprits: garlic, onions, coffee, and other foods can often create bad breath. Some of these foods, such as garlic, can be absorbed into the bloodstream and the aroma is then exhaled from the lungs, not your mouth.

2. Stop Smoking

Smoking tobacco can make your breath smell bad, but let’s not let marijuana off the hook here. It can also make your breath colorful. Any type of smoking can also cause dry mouth, which can exacerbate halitosis. Chewing tobacco is another common culprit in bad breath.

3. Improve Your Oral Hygiene

It goes without saying: improving your oral hygiene is likely to help improve the smell of your breath. So that means brushing and flossing regularly, ideally twice per day or more, and coming to our dental office in Gardena for regular professional teeth cleaning.

4. Reduce Dry Mouth

As mentioned above, dry mouth is often a common cause of halitosis. Dry mouth can cause many problems beyond just bad breath, including aggravating or causing gum disease. Therefore, getting dry mouth under control is an important part of oral health care. We can do this in a number of ways, from dealing with the underlying reasons behind the dry mouth to prescribing certain types of chewing gums or medication to help with increasing the saliva in the mouth. Trying to remember to hydrate yourself more frequently and drink lots of water can also help.

5. Try Tongue Scraping

Bacteria in the mouth doesn’t just attach itself to gums and teeth, it can also grow on your tongue. You can help reduce the bacteria in your mouth by scraping the tongue. You can do this just by brushing your tongue with your toothbrush, or you can buy a special tongue scraper at your local drugstore.

6. Use Mouthwash

Mouthwash, of course, can give your breath that minty fresh smell. But it does more than just add a cosmetic layer over your bad breath. Antiseptic mouthwash actually kills the bacteria that can often cause bad breath. It’s something that you can use throughout the day to help freshen your breath and reduce the bacteria that may be causing your halitosis. An alcohol-free mouthwash that has antiseptic qualities is best because sometimes alcohol can also dry the mouth.

7. Control Heartburn

Sometimes acid reflux, aka heartburn, can cause bad breath because the stomach acids come up and into the mouth. While you can control heartburn often with an over-the-counter medicine, make sure you also adjust your diet and consult with your primary care physician to make sure there aren't any other underlying conditions.

8. Eat Healthier Foods

Eating healthier foods can reduce bad breath in a number of ways. First of all, healthy foods can often help keep the mouth more clean because they’ll help generate saliva. Foods that are low in sugar won’t feed the bad bacteria in your mouth. So, try to eat more vegetables, or if you do need something sweet, have a piece of fruit instead of a cookie. Crunchy fresh fruits and vegetables such as carrots or apples can also help to clean the mouth of other debris as you chew.

9. Try Yogurt

Yogurt might be able to help reduce your bad breath because it actually may reduce levels of stinky chemicals in your mouth. Specifically, yogurt may reduce hydrogen sulfide. The other thing that’s nice about yogurt is that it has probiotics in it, and probiotics can help reduce the level of bad bacteria that could be causing gum irritation and inflammation.

10. Visit Your Local Gardena Dentist

Come visit us at Gardena Dental Care, and we can help determine the cause of your bad breath and give you some professional solutions such as artificial saliva.

Do You Need Halitosis Diagnosed?

If you think you might have chronic bad breath, come visit us at Gardena Dental Care to see if you might have clinical halitosis. We can check your teeth and gums to see if there might be any underlying issues that could be causing the bad breath. And if there might be something more serious, we will refer you to your primary care physician for a further checkup. Bad breath can usually be easily resolved, and we'll be happy to help you with improving your oral health care and with regular routine teeth cleaning.

Are you concerned about bad breath? Gardena Dental Care can help. Contact us today to schedule an appointment by calling (424) 295-7885.