Bad Breath Picture

What would a bad breath picture look like? Obviously it's impossible to take a picture of an odor: we can't see a smell. The mention of bad breath, however, does conjure up a mental picture - perhaps a picture of people stepping back or leaning away from someone they're having a conversation with; perhaps a picture of swollen inflamed gums and decaying teeth; perhaps a picture of a sleep-disheveled person gargling with mouthwash in front of the mirror in the morning. It's likely different for everyone.

A bad breath tester would be helpful because many people believe that they have bad breath when they don't, and they often get that impression because people step away from them when they speak. In reality the movement is often involuntary or, at worst, the cause is an odor of garlic or onions, cigarette smoke, or some other transient breath odor. The mental bad breath picture of people moving away when you speak is misleading, and it contributes to a general mentality that everyone's breath smells bad.

In reality, everyone's breath does smell bad - sometimes. For most people it's an occasional thing and not something to worry about. And unfortunately, there's really no such thing as a personal bad breath tester. Some authorities suggest licking your wrist and then smelling that to judge just how bad the bad breath picture is. This may or may not work - if your suspicion that you have bad breath is based on an unpleasant taste in your mouth, perhaps from onions, strong cheese, or dry mouth from a head cold, your nose is unlikely to be able to overcome what your tongue is telling you.

A better bad breath tester is a physician or a good friend. Someone else's nose is a much better judge than your own. Pick someone you trust to give you the true bad breath picture and, preferably, ask them to check on several different occasions so you will know whether the problem is ongoing or transient. This should help you to figure out if it is associated with some thing you are eating or perhaps another personal habit, or if the problem is an ongoing one that requires treatment.

If your bad breath tester is a doctor or a dentist, and the bad breath picture is, well, bad, use the opportunity to discuss possible health causes and the best approach to treatment. If you've used the good nature of a close friend, make an appointment with your doctor or dentist before trying over the counter or mail order products, just to be sure there isn't some important health consideration you've missed.

Curing Bad Breath

Many people have made the observation that curing bad breath permanently is frustratingly difficult. Even when halitosis sufferers find a product or lifestyle that effectively controls breath odor, the problem seems to recur immediately if the control measures are stopped. As with many things in health and medicine, attempts to find a permanent cure are hampered by a lack of understanding of what causes halitosis at the most basic level.

We know that the reason for bad breath is usually the proliferation of anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that grow in the absence of oxygen) in the mouth - particularly in the little crevices on the back of the tongue, but also in other creases and crevices such as the spaces between the teeth and in pockets between the teeth and gums. The offending bacteria break down proteins and give of volatile sulfur compounds as a byproduct. Volatile sulfur compounds smell awful. This much we know: what we don't know, in many cases, is why the anaerobes proliferate to begin with, and curing bad breath depends on understanding that process.

In some cases, the reason for bad breath is obvious. Dental decay, gum disease, plaque buildup on the teeth, and other inflammatory conditions of the mouth are obvious causes - in these situations, the conditions are right for bacteria to multiply as they live off unhealthy and dead tissue. Sinus conditions, post nasal drip and inflammation in the throat or lungs are less obvious sources of trouble. For these conditions, curing bad breath depends on clearing up the inflammatory condition - often a lengthy and expensive process if it is possible at all.

In many cases of chronic halitosis, the reason for bad breath is much harder to pinpoint. Lots of healthy people with healthy mouths and no underlying medical problems have problems with breath odor. Where there is no underlying condition, curing bad breath often means merely controlling it on an ongoing basis. Typically, this requires using a product that will mask, reduce, or eliminate the odor temporarily. Numerous commercial products are available, forming a multimillion dollar industry in developed countries.

Recently, some interesting suggestions have been made with respect to life style and curing bad breath. Could a poor diet and lack of exercise contribute to the proliferation of unhealthy bacteria in the mouth? At a time when we're discovering that diet and exercise play an important role in many diseases, it's not too surprising to hear this may be the reason for bad breath as well. Adequate B Vitamins, Vitamin C, and zinc are all thought to be important, as well as a diet that contains lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Fortunately, these dietary nutrients, combined with regular exercise, are the same ones recommended for good health in other respects. In cases where the cause of bad breath is a mystery, a life style change might well be helpful.

Every individual case is different - to uncover the reason for bad breath in your case, consult your doctor and/or dentist, and discuss treatment options.

Puppy Bad Breath

One would expect that puppy bad breath would be a relatively uncommon thing. After all, puppies' mouths are usually very healthy and young dogs have not had time to accumulate a buildup of tartar on their teeth. Surprisingly, a unpleasant odor on a puppy's breath is not uncommon - it's often caused, however, by different things than the problem in older dogs. If you puppy has not had regular veterinary care, a sensible first step is to take the puppy for a health check, vaccinations, and deworming.

If your young dog has bad breath, the next step is to look in his mouth. Look for inflamed gums or signs of an impacted baby tooth. Both of these things can generate an odor from dead tissue or from mouth bacteria that tend to colonize an unhealthy site. Is your puppy teething? Teething is a common cause of inflammation in a puppy's mouth and of puppy bad breath. Teething is usually finished by the time the puppy is six or seven months old. If, however, your puppy is not teething and you see that her gums are seriously inflamed, take her to your veterinarian for an examination.

While you are looking in your puppy's mouth, check carefully for food items lodged between the teeth. If you find something there it may have been there for a while and could easily be the sole cause of puppy bad breath. The solution is easy: remove the food and keep an eye on things. There may be certain places in your dog's mouth where food is particularly likely to lodge, so any time your dog has bad breath, check for that.

When an older dog has bad breath, it's usually due to a buildup of tartar on the teeth and accompanying gum inflammation. This is a rare cause of puppy bad breath, but it is worth looking carefully at the teeth, especially the outside surfaces of the back molars, to be sure that nothing is building up there. Feeding soft and canned dog foods can accelerate tartar buildup. Be sure to buy your puppy some chew toys and bones that will help keep his teeth clean. You can also get him used to having his teeth brushed at a young age to avoid tartar problems later on.

Another thing to consider is the possibility that the puppy bad breath is coming from somewhere other than your dog's mouth. Many dogs will eat feces if they get the chance and this can produce a terrible smell on the breath for a while. Also they may pick up a bad smell in the mouth when they groom themselves around the anal sac. When a dog has bad breath at any age, this may be the cause. There's not a lot you can do about it, but remember, in each instance, it's temporary.

In some cases of puppy bad breath, there's nothing wrong. Some breeds are said to typically have bad breath and there isn't much you can do about it. Your veterinarian can help you decide if your puppy has bad breath because of a health problem, or if that's just the way her breath naturally smells.

Post Nasal Drip Bad Breath

The problem of post nasal drip bad breath is that post nasal drip, a chronic symptom that can be very difficult to correct, provides a constant food supply to bacteria that produce the bad odor we associate with bad breath (halitosis). The drip is a continual flow of mucus from the nasal passages and sinuses that contains proteins and other food supplies for bacteria. The bacteria that benefit from this are frequently those that live on the back of the tongue, many of them anaerobes that produce foul smelling sulfur compounds when they break down proteins.

Contributing to bad breath sinus discharge can also result in tonsiloliths, collections of dead cells and debris that lodge on the tonsils and in tonsillar crypts and grow into pale stone-like aggregates. These "tonsil stones," like the discharge, provide food for bacteria and a place for bacteria to live. Tonsiloliths are usually noticeably malodorous and though they are eventually dislodged, they tend to recur - another troublesome type of post nasal drip bad breath.

The best hope for relief of bad breath sinus trouble, of course, is to treat the sinus problem and hope that the flow of discharge can be decreased enough to cut down the populations of bacteria that are producing the odor. Sinus problems should be evaluated by a doctor and treated appropriately. While many people are able to lessen or get rid of a chronic sinus condition, post nasal drip bad breath will be an ongoing problem for others. It may require a long term commitment to treating the bad breath with a commercial product that fights the troublesome bacteria from a different angle.

Some commercial products directly address the problem of post nasal drip bad breath by producing sinus drops, which can be used in conjunction with an effective mouthwash. The best products for fighting bad breath are aimed at decreasing the populations of odor producing bacteria and then keeping their numbers so low that no odor is detectable on the breath. Bad breath sinus drops are a relatively new product on the market and are not available from every supplier. If you suspect that your bad breath is connected to post nasal drip, you might want to try this approach.

How to Fight Bad Breath

For decades, ever since halitosis was identified as a social and personal problem, people have been asking how to fight bad breath - and looking to science and medicine to provide real answers to the problem. Scientific knowledge of halitosis has advanced steadily so that we now know what causes bad breath, and with that information we are closer than ever to finding a way to get rid of it.

Dr. J. Tonzetich is credited with discovering the bacterial cause of bad breath in 1964, a big step toward the development of an effective bad breath medicine. In classic bad breath, the bad odor is produced by the proliferation of anaerobic oral bacteria, that is, bacteria that live in the mouth and throat - in the creases of the gums, between the teeth, and especially on the surface of the tongue. These bacteria live on proteins that they find in the mouth and produce sulfur compounds as a byproduct of their metabolism. In exploring how to treat bad breath, investigators must find ways to remove or reduce the odor reducing bacteria.

In most people, the immune system keeps populations of oral bacteria in check without the need for bad breath medicine. A healthy body with a healthy mouth should not have a problem. In some people, however, things go off kilter and it's not clear why. Current research is now suggesting that lifestyle and dietary factors may play a role, as they do with many health problems. A permanent health solution that tells us how to fight bad breath may include better eating habits, abstaining from smoking and alcohol, and getting lots of physical activity.

At present, there are many commercial products available as bad breath medicine. Those that are likely to be the most useful to chronic halitosis sufferers are products that destroy or remove the odor producing bacteria. Scientists working on the problem have thought of many innovative approaches to the challenge of how to fight bad breath. Some mouthwashes have antibacterial chemicals as active ingredients, while others deliver oxygen to the mouth to wipe out the bacteria that live in the absence of oxygen. Still others mop up bacteria with oil and carry them away.

Any of these approaches or something yet to come may turn out to be the best solution to the problem of how to fight bad breath - we don't have the perfect bad breath medicine just yet. Today's products are far better than those of the past, however. A persistent approach using one of these remedies should keep halitosis under control.