7 simple but effective tips to fight against Halitosis
Dr. D.Sendhil Nathan MDS, DNB Prosthodontics And Implantology
Do you smell a nasty odor from your mouth? Then we are sure that you are encountering various distress in your day to day activities. Am I right?
If you have doubt whether you have bad breath mentioned by people around you, but you did not smell any odor, just try this.
Take a spoon and gently scrub at the back of your tongue with it. Take the spoon out and wait until the saliva gets dry. Now smell the spoon. If the flavor is unpleasant, then you are a sufferer of Halitosis.
Don’t worry, it is a common dental issue. You can evacuate the awful odor in your mouth by just combining activities to keep your fresh and eliminate oral bacteria. Here are few simple tips which will help you to get rid of halitosis:
1. Stay Hydrated
Bacteria colonization will take place at higher rates if there is a lack of salivary flow and makes your mouth dry. This condition leads the oral bacteria to cling on your teeth surfaces and causes bad breath. You can evade this by maximizing the salivary production.
Hence it is essential to keep your mouth hydrated by drinking more water. It will produce more saliva. The odor causing bacteria gets eroded with the salivary flow.
2. Avoid mouth breathing
It is quite common to breathe through mouth while sleeping but it is linked to Halitosis. If you use your mouth instead of nose to release nitrous oxide, then you will get a minimum amount of oxygen. Similarly, you inhale dry air with mouth breathing.
Dry air and low oxygen supply reduce the salivary flow. This makes your mouth as a breeding ground for oral bacteria to proliferate and causes bad breath. Visit your Doctor or use a strip-like appliance to keep your mouth closed during your sleep.
3. Chew mint or sugar-free gums
Take few mint leaves and chew it after your meals. This is a natural ingredient and helps you to keep your mouth fresh for a while.
Similarly, you can prefer chewing gums after every meal. It is also efficient to keep your mouth fresh by inducing more salivary production. Saliva takes care of eliminating bacteria as we saw in the above section.
4. Rinse with mouthwash
Swishing mouth with mouthwashes adds an extra protection to your mouth. Rinsing out mouth with mouthwashes for 30 seconds is efficient to keep the mouth fresh and eliminates the oral bacteria.
Similarly, you need to look at the ingredients present in the mouthwash because few types of mouthwash contain alcohol. It is better to avoid such mouthwashes to clean your mouth as they cause serious oral diseases.
5. Consume Digestive enzymes
As we mentioned in our earlier post on Halitosis, acidity and digestive disorders are also responsible for bad breath. Similarly, issues associated with the organs in the digestive tract produce nasty smell as a warning signal.
Hence it is essential to devour appropriate digested enzymes prescribed by your Doctor.
6. Eat Breath-friendly foods
Certain food substances like onion and garlic are efficient to sour your breath. They blend with the bloodstream and travel to the lungs. It is followed by delivering breath with a souring smell from the lungs when you exhale.
When we consume such odor-causing food particles, the odor stays in the mouth for 24 hours even if we brush and rinse our mouth. Hence you need to avoid thus odor-causing food items and consume eatables like fruits, vegetables, yogurt and others which have anti-bacterial properties.
7. Clean your tongue
Bacteria present on your tongue surface are transmitted to your teeth even after cleaning your teeth. Thus the oral bacteria are still clinging on your mouth even though you brush and floss your teeth. Tongue cleaning is the only way to get rid of this issue and prevent halitosis caused by the bacteria.
Use tongue cleaner or tongue scraper to extract the germs and bacteria on the surface of your tongue.
The mentioned things will provide long-term results if and only if you follow these on a regular basis. Otherwise, your mouth will continue to produce a nasty smell.
