Approximately 40 million American deal with persistent bad breath, a condition clinically referred to as halitosis, according to the American Dental Hygienists’ Association.
Individuals who suffer from frequent bad breath can find themselves feeling self-conscious and embarrassed whenever in social or professional situations. Feeling less confident in these situations can have a negative impact on your work and personal lives, making bad breath a condition that can carry lasting consequences.
To help you feel better about your breath, here are nine steps you can take towards enjoying fresh breath you can feel confident about.
Floss and Brush More Frequently
One of the easiest – and overall most important – solutions to improving your breath is brushing and flossing more frequently. In addition to removing food particles that have lingered from breakfast, lunch, and dinner, brushing and flossing also help to remove foul smelling bacteria from between your teeth. If you want your breath to smell its best, start with brushing twice a day and flossing at least once at night.
Scrape Your Tongue
The natural whitish coating that usually covers your tongue can harbor many strains of foul-smelling bacteria. To remove them from your mouth, gently brush your tongue with your toothbrush. If you find the head of your brush uncomfortably large when brushing your tongue, consider purchasing a tongue scraper to use instead.
Avoid Foul Smelling Foods
If you have a love of liverwurst and pickled onion sandwiches, the fact that your breath smells less than its best shouldn’t come as too big a surprise. What makes these types of foods so difficult to mask is that the foul smelling substances they contain enter your blood stream during digestion where they travel to your lungs, thereby making every breath you expel an unfortunate reminder about what you had for lunch to those nearby. Brushing and using mouthwash can offer a temporary solution, but you won’t be able to eliminate the smell from these foods until they have been completely digested.
The list of serious long-term health consequences linked to smoking should provide reason enough to finally kick the habit. But if you need one more reason to stop smoking, consider that habit also contributes to frequent and persistent bad breath.
The foul smelling bacteria that brushing and flossing help remove from your mouth has a tendency to buildup in hard to reach places. To help eliminate bacteria from spots your brush may miss, consider using an antibacterial mouthwash as part of your morning and nightly oral hygiene routine.
Chew Sugar-Free Gum After Meals
One of the easiest ways to remove lingering food particles from your mouth after a meal is to chew a stick of sugar-free gum. Chewing gum causes your mouth to produce more saliva, which in turn washes away food particles before they have a chance to breakdown, decay, and smell.
Keep Your Gums Healthy
Gum disease ranks as one of the most common causes of persistent bad breath. Foul smelling bacteria accumulates in the pockets the disease causes to form along the base of your teeth. If you suffer from gum disease, talk with any of our doctors at Advanced Family Dental about which treatment solutions are right for you.
Deal with Dry Mouth
Saliva acts as the body’s natural defense mechanism against harmful bacteria that causes tooth decay and gum disease. When patients suffer from dry mouth, they have a much higher risk of developing decay and persistent bad breath. A number of commonly prescribed medications cause dry mouth as a side effect, so you need to pay close attention and deal with the problem quickly should you notice a reduction in saliva.
Schedule a Visit at Advanced Family Dental, Your Family Dentist in Lakewood
If you continue to suffer from bad breath no matter what you try, schedule an appointment to see one of our doctors. Bad breath can be a symptom of a more serious medical condition, such as diabetes, lung infection, sinus infection, and even liver or kidney disease. Don’t delay in scheduling an appointment should your breath not improve after changing your dietary or eating habits.