Bad breath is also known as halitosis which is usually caused by many factors. It can be caused by bacteria that feed over the food particles and other debris that sticks to the teeth or dentures. In this article main causes for bad breath and few tips to re-freshen the breath are mentioned.
Causes of bad breath
Bad breath is caused by various factors. The following are 5 main causes of bad breath:
- Crypts in tonsils: Tonsils present in throat contain deep holes called crypts and in case if they are very wide and pitted some substance gets in to these holes and smells cheese like. This may be one of the reason for bad breath.
- Bad habits: Bad habits like chewing tobacco, smoking leads to bad breath as they leave an offensive taste and smell in your mouth
- Presence of bacteria inside mouth: bacteria usually breed inside your mouth where they hide between your teeth and cover all over your tongue. When these bacteria hibernate they release bad odors and toxins.
- Pungent foods: Foods such as garlic, onion and fish can cause bad breath even hours after brushing of teeth.
- Gastrointestinal(GI) problems: Few GI problems like ulcer causes bad breath while burping.
Tips to freshen your breath
Following are few tips to freshen up your breath:
- Floss atleast once a day for fresh breath: Flossing removes the hidden food particles and plaque, which is a layer of bacteria that forms over the tooth. It also helps to prevent from periodontal disease which is another major cause for bad breath.
- Brushing teeth and cleaning your tongue helps to get rid of bad breath: Brush atleast twice a day with a flouride tooth paste both the teeth and tongue which helps in removing bacteria which is responsible for bad breath.
- Check for infections and get treated: bad breath may be caused if a person have sinus infection hence diagnosing them early and getting treated may prevent person from bad breath.
- Gargle with peroxide mouth wash: if excess plaque is present go gargling with any antimicrobial mouth wash with peroxide present in it. The oxygen present in the peroxide kills the bad bacteria present in mouth which causes bad breath.
- Keep yourself hydrated: staying hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids is required to get rid of bad breath because lack of fluids leads to dry mouth which finally leads to bad breath.
- Chew gum to eradicate bad breath: chewing gum helps to salivate in case of dry mouth where the saliva washes away the bacteria present in your mouth.
The above information provides some of the few causes for bad breath and few simple daily tips to be followed to get rid of it.