Bad Breath In Saliva – Finding Where It Comes From

Bad breath can come from what seems like your saliva. But as we will find out in this article, it’s not so much that your saliva is the cause, but other symptoms that plaques your mouth.

Bad breath typically comes from the bacteria that produces something called VSC (Volatile Sulfur Compounds). These compounds bring about the smell of what their made of, which is sulfur. And sulfur, as you are probably well aware of, doesn’t smell that great at all.

But are their cases where your saliva will smell bad? And if it is the bad bacteria that is making your saliva smell terrible, what can you do to fix the problem? Keep reading to find out!

The reason For Saliva

Saliva is usually made of around 95% water, and usually doesn’t come with any smell. Your body produces saliva for several reasons:

  1. To keep your mouth moist. When you mouth is moist and wet, bad bacteria have a hard time to stay alive. Dry mouth is an occurrence when your mouth becomes dry, usually because the flow of saliva has been restricted. When you have dry mouth, you have a higher chance of having bad breath.
  2. To clean your mouth out. Saliva naturally flushes everything out of your mouth. If you have bad bacteria in your mouth, saliva is the bodies natural cleansing agent to clear the mouth of any contaminants.

    Also, it helps clean your mouth out of any food particles left over from eating. If left in your mouth, these food particles can help feed the bad bacteria and help give you halitosis.

  3. To help your food for digestion. As you eat, your teeth grind your food down to get it ready for your stomach to break it down, and use it throughout your body. The saliva helps keeps the food in a moist state, and helps with the breaking of it down.

Why Your Saliva May Smell

There are a plethora of reason why your saliva may smell. But the most common reasons aren’t that hard to explain, or for the most part, aren’t hard to cure.

Bad Bacteria. Bad bacteria is the most common cause for your saliva smelling bad. The reason behind this is simple. If you have a large infestation of bad bacteria, and your saliva can’t get rid of it easily, the bacteria is going to mingle with the bad bacteria, and cause it to stink.
Foods and Drinks. I wrote an article recently about foods that cause can cause bad breath. Some of these foods, like garlic and onions, may also cause your saliva to smell nasty. It happens pretty much the same way as with bacteria. If you have some garlic, it is going to mix with your saliva and make it smell.
Acid Reflux. Acid Reflux is where some of the acid from you stomach comes up into your throat, and sometimes in the back of your throat. If this happens, this also can cause your saliva to smell differently than normal.

Curing Your Saliva, And Your Halitosis

Like I said before, the reason your saliva is smelly shouldn’t be a hard thing to fix. With a little tweaking here and there, you should be able to cure the problem of the smell quickly and efficiently.

Oral Hygiene. I am a firm believer that if you properly take care of your mouth, then it will not smell, either the saliva, the breath, or anything. In most cases, if you brush and floss, your breath should change for the better.

If you don’t have time to floss, take a look at my article on some of the best water flossers, as these will help you save time by being able to floss faster. Also, I recommend this article to those looking for a good toothpaste to use for brushing your teeth with.
Change Your Diet. The article I mention previously is a good place to start with cutting things out of your diet. Things you may want to add into your diet can be found in this article. Keeping food out of your diet, or adding foods, can help cure your saliva smell pretty quickly. I mean, it won’t happen overnight, but give it a day or two, and the smell should go away.

Acid Reflux. Acid Reflux needs a whole article by itself, and one will be posted here shortly. But there are simple things that you can do to help ease the reflux of the acid.

  • Don’t Lie Down After A Meal. If you have a habit of eating and immediately lying down, then that may be the cause of your acid reflux. Make sure to wait an hour or two before lying down, and it could clear up.
  • Lose Weight. One of the main reasons you may have acid reflux is because you may be overweight. Cut out the pounds you are carrying around, and your acid reflux may leave you alone.
  • Wear more loose clothing. If you wear tight clothing, especially around your waist, this can help your acid reflux. The tight clothing can hinder digestion and thus give you acid reflux.

Bad Breath and Saliva

Bad breath isn’t something that we should be afraid to deal with. With some simple changes to diet, oral hygiene, and a few other things, you usually can learn to keep your bad breath at bay.

Saliva isn’t something that should get a smell to it, but there can be cases where that does. And when it does, the bad breath in saliva can make a terrible smell that you want to try to avoid. But if you follow the advice in this article, and others I linked to, your breath should be fresher within a few days.

Continue with eating food that can cure your breath, drink plenty of water, remember to brush and floss every day, and you’ll be on your way to better breath soon.
How have you been affected by bad breath? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

 

1 thought on “Bad Breath In Saliva – Finding Where It Comes From”

  1. I have had all my teeth capped because I grind and they were getting very small. I never had bad breath before my caps. All my teeth are crowned by a very good prostodontist and I know I don’t have any problems with my gums. I floss daily and brush at least twice a day, and even use techniques (rounding the floss around the teeth at the gum line and brushing at a 45 degree angle towards the gum line inside and out. I have tried mouthwash, even hydrogen peroxide, to cleanse my mouth after brushing. The bad breath usually occurs after I put my retainer in which I wear 24×7 to protect my new crowns, especially after eating (I can’t always brush if I am not at home when I eat). I think my saliva seems abnormally thick, especially after brushing, I have to rinse and rinse and rinse to get all the toothpaste out of my mouth. Can saliva not rinse the mouth properly if it is too thick? Can you think of anything else could cause this, especially since it is my post-crown treatment? P.s. I drink water all day long.

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