Bad breath, or halitosis, is a problem no one wants to have. Bad breath simply means having bad-smelling, nasty breath. Though not a serious threat to health, bad breath is certainly unpleasant. Being in a social situation while having bad breath is a sure way to offend others and cause embarrassment. Plus, bad breath is downright disgusting for its own sake. Solving a bad breath problem as quickly as possible is important. Here are the five big tips for curing bad breath.
1. Don’t smoke. Before taking any other measures in treating bad breath, it makes sense to take care of the basics first. Smoking is terrible for oral health and is a common cause of bad breath. Smoking dries out the mouth, and the chemicals in tobacco build up in the mouth and generate odor. Besides, smoking is absolutely terrible for health in general. Smoking raises risk for cancer enormously and is likely to shorten lifespan. While there are even better reasons to quit smoking, bad breath is one more good reason on the list.
2. Brush teeth regularly. Brushing teeth is the biggest key to resolving bad breath. Most of the time, simply practicing good oral hygiene is all that is needed to stop bad breath. Since the nasty bacteria that cause bad breath grow quickly, it is important to thoroughly brush twice a day. As with smoking, there is obviously already excellent reason to brush teeth regularly, even aside from the bad breath issue.
3. Floss regularly. Flossing is the other major component of good oral health, and is also vital to overcoming bad breath. While brushing does a lot to remove food debris from the mouth, it cannot get everything. Flossing is needed to get rid of food stuck between the teeth, which otherwise can result in bad breath. Besides treating bad breath, brushing and flossing are together vital to minimizing the development of plaque, and to thereby keeping teeth protected from cavities.
4. Modify diet. While brushing and flossing are generally enough to fix bad breath issues, diet can sometimes be a cause of halitosis. It is most important to minimize consumption of sugar and processed carbohydrates. Not only are these foods potential bad breath triggers, but they are also horrible for health in general. Foods with strong smells such as garlic, onions, peppers, and chilis are other potential causes of bad breath.
5. Use breath mints or gum. Breath mints or gum are not nearly as crucial to fixing bad breath as are brushing and flossing regularly. However, they can do a little to help resolve a case of bad breath. Breath mints and gum increase salivation in the mouth, thereby avoiding dry mouth. Dry mouth can cause halitosis because saliva helps greatly to rid the mouth of food debris.
Bad breath is certainly a nasty problem. Fortunately, in addition to not being a serious health condition, it is also usually not hard to fix. The steps needed to solve halitosis are simple and require little in the way of time. In the rare cases that the five steps seen above do not solve the problem, seeking advanced medical care is wise, since there is a small chance bad breath can be caused by serious medical issues such as diabetes and liver disease. However, in most instances, anyone who has a bad breath issue can fix it in short order on their own.