›› Cures For Bad Breath
Bad breath can
really make your life hard. First of all, no one will tell
you that you have it, so you’ll probably never
know. You’ll have a hard time keeping
relationships, people will avoid you, and you’ll never really
know why. Even if you do know that you have bad breath, it
isn’t as easy to get rid of as you’d
think. Or is it? Are there any cures for bad
breath? Or just different ways of covering it up?
Most of the ‘cures for bad breath’ you’ll
see are definitely the latter; they are basically scents and perfumes
for your mouth that will wear off in time. And as strong as
they may taste or feel in your mouth, severe cases of bad breath will
still be noticeable over and above these treatments. In order
to really find a cure for bad breath, you have to understand
what’s causing it.
So what does cause
bad breath? In a word; bacteria.
Everyone’s favorite microbes are once again to
blame. In fact, just about every bad organic smell you can
imagine comes down to bacteria. Even though they are vital
for our survival and are an integral part of the world’s
ecosystem, bacteria really know how to stink things up.
So a cure for bad breath should focus on killing or reducing bacteria,
right? Yes and no. Here’s where the cures
for bad breath distinguish themselves. Most claim that they
kill some ridiculously high percentage of bacteria in your mouth, and
that’s just great. However, killing large amounts
of bacteria isn’t really the goal. Removing the
specific odor causing bacteria, and neutralizing their odor producing
compounds is the goal.
The vast majority of
the odor causing bacteria in your mouth are centered on one place; your
tongue. Specifically, the back parts of your
tongue. And trust me, they’re stuck on there
good. A little brushing of your tongue may help, but
won’t really be a cure for bad breath. To really
cure bad breath, you have to physically scrape the bacterial biofilm
off of your tongue. This isn’t as easy as it sounds
as it can produce a gag reflex if you’re not used to doing
it, but in time you’ll get over it and it gets
easier. You can use a tongue scraper, or anything that has
enough of an edge to scoop up the plaque, but isn’t so sharp
that it will cut your tongue.
A good compliment to scraping your tongue is of course regular brushing
and flossing, but also using mouthwash. Not just any
mouthwash will do; there are specific odor neutralizing chemicals in
some brands that are vastly superior as a bad breath cure than the more
popular brands, like Scope or Listerine. Alcohol and menthol
don’t do anything; look for brands that advertise the ability
to neutralize volatile sulfur compounds, as those are the ones that
will help serve as a cure for bad breath.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
