Cure Your Bad Breath For Good

Are you constantly chewing mints or gum to address your bad breath? Unfortunately, you’re only masking the problem. If you want a long-term fix for your embarrassing bad breath, you’ll need to get to the root of the problem first. Your dentist is the best place to start. A majority of bad breath (or halitosis) triggers can be traced back to your oral health.

What is Causing Your Halitosis?

Ready to treat your foul breath odor at its source? Here are some places to start:

Is it Your Oral Hygiene: Poor dental care is the most popular contributor to bad breath. When brushing and flossing habits start to slack, bacteria and plaque start to build up. Food debris that is left on your teeth and tongue after meals will eventually form bacteria that breaks downs and produces foul-smelling sulfur compounds. To halt the cycle of bacteria and bad mouth odors, diligent oral hygiene is in order. When cleaning your mouth each day, don’t forget to floss between your teeth and brush your tongue. These are sneaky places that like to harbor food particles and bacteria!

Is it Your Medications: Prescription and non-prescription drugs can produce a number of unwanted side effects. Unfortunately, dry mouth is among the most common side effect for several types of medicines, including those that treat depression, anxiety, pain, allergies and hypertension. When there is an insufficient level of saliva in the mouth, it is common to have an abundance of bacteria. One of saliva’s primary roles is to rinse away bacteria and neutralize your oral acids. If your medicine is causing your bad breath, talk to your dentist about ways to relieve your dry mouth.

Is it Your Recent Weight Loss Efforts: While weight loss doesn’t directly cause bad breath, the way you are shedding those pounds could be contributing. For example, if you are using crash dieting or fasting to lose weight, your body will produce ketones as a response to the accelerated break down of fats in your body. Ketones give the breath an unpleasant “fruity” odor.

Is it Your Gum Health: Last but certainly not least, it is important that you evaluate the condition of your gums when investigating your bad breath. One of the warning signs for gum disease is foul breath odor. If you have periodontal disease, bad breath is the least of your worries. You’ll need to seek treatment as soon as possible so that the condition can be reversed and you can avoid threats to your smile and overall health.

At the office of Dr. Tejal Kakade, we can treat your bad breath. We understand the importance of getting to the root cause of your halitosis so that you can regain a more confident mouth. Don’t shy away from discussing your bad breath with us – we may be your only answer to eliminating the problem for good!