Treating bad breath is not that hard at all. It’s just a matter of
finding what to treat, and then find the right treatment. Take a look at this article on how to find out if you have bad breath, and where it is coming from.
Most people assume that all bad breath is the same, and can be treated in the same cases. But this is simply not the case. Bad breath that comes from the back of the throat needs to be treated differently from halitosis that comes from your teeth.
While you need to treat bad breath differently for where you suspect it’s coming from, the treatments themselves aren’t that hard in and of themselves, as we will see below. So let’s go take a look and see what we can learn!
Oral Hygiene is the way to go
The first thing we need to treat is our teeth and gums. And we can do that by making sure that we brush and floss regularly. While that may seem obvious to some, the unfortunate fact is that very few people actually do it.
Brushing – Make sure you brush at least for two minutes a day. If you still have bad breath and you think it’s coming from the teeth area, I would then recommend brushing twice a day, morning and night.
When you brush, make sure you use a circular motion. Brush the tops and both sides of your teeth, as the more surface area you can clean, the more likely you will get what’s giving you halitosis.
Toothpaste – Something that isn’t uncommon, but yet most people don’t know, is that toothpaste can actually be the cause for your bad breath sometimes. If you feel that your breath gets worse when you use a certain kind of toothpaste, then I would recommend changing the toothpaste you use.
Feel free to take a look at my article here where I review Closys’ fluoride and fluoride-free toothpastes, ones that don’t have any sulfates in them.
Flossing – Many people make sure to brush their teeth, but neglect to floss. Flossing plays an important part in treating bad breath. Flossing is useful in helping get rid of plaque and other build up from between your teeth that your tooth brush can’t reach.
When you floss, make sure to get between each tooth, flossing against each tooth and the gum lines. Most people do this three times a day, typically after each meal. But you should be able to get away with just doing it once a day.
If you don’t like dental floss, or are wondering about ways to speed up the process, you can take a look at this article on the pro’s and con’s of oral irrigators as compared to dental floss.
Eating properly and at the right times
Oftentimes, eating can play a large part with someone’s halitosis. So it is essential to have a good understanding of just how food can affect us.
Treating halitosis that comes from eating is relatively easy. It’s just a matter of doing less snacking and drinking more water.
Scheduled eating times – It is essential to make sure that you eat at the same time every day. As you most likely know, your body will produce stuff when it thinks something is going to happen to your body.
For example, before you go to sleep, most people’s bodies will produce melatonin in your body to help you go to sleep. That’s why you can feel sleepy at your normal time of sleeping, even though you’re working late (or for what ever reason your up later than normal).
The same is true for when we eat. We produce saliva and other stuff to help us get ready for the food, and help break it down. When you delay your meal for an hour or so, you disrupt what your body is naturally trying to do, and can get bad breath because of it.
Now having a delayed here and there is okay. But if you don’t have consistent times you sit down to eat, you can come away with a rather sweet, pungent smell to your breath.
Less snacking – Cutting down on your snacking is also critical to treat your bad breath. When you continually snack on different foods, you continually leave food particles in your mouth that can feed bacteria, which will produce a rather foul smelling odor.
So make sure to try to cut down on your snacking, or snack on more healthy foods, (as we’ll take a look down farther below), to help treat your halitosis.
Water – Water is an interesting liquid. Something that our body uses a lot of. Water is also helpful in cleaning out people’s mouth’s after they’ve eaten, removing much of the food particles left behind after eating a meal.
Typically, I try to drink before and after meals, just to clear my mouth of anything that may try to stay in there for bacteria to feast on.
Eating healthy
Poor digestion can be a major reason on why someone has halitosis. It’s not uncommon for people to ingest foods that are harder to break down, which can lead not only to bad breath, but also stomach pains, bloated-ness, and overall poor health.
Whole foods, raw foods – Eat as much whole foods and raw foods as you can. Instead of eating the conventional white bread toast, go with something like whole wheat toast, or rye/pumpernickel toast.
If you can, try to cut out fast food meals from your diet. Having a high sugar, high sodium diet not only causes halitosis, but can cause diabetes, mental illnesses, and even cancer.
Snack with the right foods – If you are a snacker, or someone one who can’t cut snacking out completely, then make sure to snack on those raw foods that we’ve been talking about. Make yourself some carrot sticks, or apple slices.
Celery sticks, peaches, pears, and cucumbers are also things that are good to eat, and snack on. Just make sure to drink plenty of water to help wash anything down, so that you don’t leave anything in your mouth that can help your bad breath.
With the right method, halitosis is easy to treat
Bad breath is something that can be treated easily and quickly, assuming we know what we’re doing. Typically, halitosis should go away after a few days of treating it.
Sometimes, though, you may need an extra pickup, to get through the next couple of days or weeks. Feel free to look around on this site, as there are several articles where I look into different mouthwashes to use for halitosis.
Did you have any other insights into treating bad breath that I didn’t discuss in this article? I would love to hear about them. Feel free to discuss them with me in the comments section below.