Aug 27, 2010
Posted on Aug 27, 2010 in Teeth Whitening | 0 comments
We’ve all found ourselves chatting with someone whose bad breath could strip the skin from Superman’s face. And, let’s face it, we’ve all been on the other end of things where everyone in a ten metre radius seems to be unaccountably losing consciousness. In my own case, this tends to be after I’ve had a drink or two and it’s easy to convince myself that people are collapsing in joyous response to my urbane wit (okay, maybe after more than two drinks).
The important point is that if we’re aware of the problem, we can do something to cure it and make ourselves healthy again – and if we understand the causes of the problem, we can do the RIGHT something
Essentially there are two types of halitosis (bad breath): short term and chronic (long term). (Get used to the brackets because, considering how much they annoy me, I do seem to use quite a lot of them
Short term halitosis is caused by food and drink. I’m not talking about garlic or curry, which have aromas that don’t know when to pack up and leave you in peace; I’m talking about things like coffee and cheese, which leave behind a rotten smell which is nothing like that of the original substance. So if you dunk lumps of cheese in your coffee, you have a problem – in more ways than one! (Sorry about the exclamation mark! I hate! exclamation! marks even more than brackets! but I didn’t want anyone thinking there’s a dangerous medical condition characterised by repetitive cheese dunking – although there might be!)
Chronic halitosis is caused by one or more of the following:
1. Poor oral hygiene – leading to food stagnation, plaque accumulation, tooth decay, gingivitis (gum infection) and periodontal disease (really bad gum infection causing loss of the bone that supports the teeth).
2. Persistent habits or behaviour such as smoking or dieting.
3. Post-nasal drip (catarrh).
4. General medical conditions.
And I’ve got to tell you, Numbers 1 and 2 are way, WAY out ahead of 3 and 4. If you have chronic bad breath, the overwhelming odds suggest you are either not keeping your mouth clean enough or you are doing something to harm yourself. That, of course, is bad in one way but good in another because you can do something about it – if you know what to do.
By the way, while I’m smugly pontificating about harming yourself, let me bring your attention back to the part about bone loss in the list above. You’ve probably already worked out that if you lose enough bone, your teeth become loose. Lose enough bone and your teeth fall out, or become such a nuisance that you want them extracted. In the human body, nothing bad exists in isolation.
As this is a self-help piece and both post-nasal drip and general medical conditions require professional intervention, I won’t go into them here. If you are meticulously doing everything I’m about to suggest and you still have a problem, see your dentist or your GP pronto.
ORAL HYGIENE ISSUES
Let’s presume the odour is coming from within your mouth, rather than through your mouth from somewhere else. There are three possible sites:
1. Your gums.
2. Your teeth.
3. Your tongue.
GUMS
People talk about gum disease as if it were something you might catch if you’re unlucky – like flu or Ebola virus. Sorry, but that’s not how it is. In the vast majority of cases, if you have gum trouble it’s because, over a long period of time, you haven’t been doing something that you should have been doing. None of us likes to take the blame for our own shortcomings and would rather explain that we were late for work because an alien mothership vaporized the bus, than apologize because we couldn’t be arsed to get out of bed this morning. Well, you might as well blame a bad hair day on ‘computer problems’.
Healthy gums are firm, pink and stippled, like orange peel (apart from the ‘pink’ bit, which would tend to denote an unhealthy orange). So if any areas of your gums are squishy, red or shiny, you have a problem. Bleeding is another danger sign of gingivitis. Despite what some people might tell you, healthy gums are no more likely to bleed than are, say, eyes or nipples. No-one, outside of an action movie, would ignore blood pouring down their face or soaking through their shirt, but inside the mouth it’s less visible, and it gets diluted by saliva and swallowed. It’s easy to forget about this blood because it’s not in your face (although, of course, it is literally in your face).
Okay, as you’ve probably gathered by now, we’re talking about bugs. Even a healthy human mouth is crawling with bacteria. Many of these are harmless and some are beneficial – but the bad guys are tough and they rarely miss an opportunity to cause havoc. We give them that opportunity every time we leave food behind in our mouths.
Bacteria that live in the mouth digest this food debris and make plaque, a sticky gel that keeps the bacteria and their harmful products in contact with the teeth and gums. Over time, they use minerals from your saliva to build themselves a strong defensive ‘bunker’ – a hard shell known as calculus or tartar. Then they can really get to work destroying the attachment between your teeth and gums in a nice sheltered environment where your brush can’t get at them.
Infected gums discharge a variety of smelly fluids (hands up anyone who’d like to see the next bunch of fame-starved saddos on ‘I’m a Celebrity’ drink a mug of pus).
Once tartar has formed, you need a hygienist to shift it for you. A dentist can also remove tartar but, speaking as a member of that profession, I have to admit a hygienist will make a much better job of it – and she’ll show you how to stop the tartar building back up again.
Remember what I said about all the bad stuff being linked? Inflamed gums recede. So if you’ve spent a lot of money on veneers, crowns or bridges, those restorations are not going to stay looking good when your gums have shrunk away from them and there’s bare root surface on show. This usually happens well before the teeth become lose and start to move around.
So, if you keep your teeth clean (especially in between – so you’ll need floss or an interdental brush) you should have healthy gums and steer clear of gingivitis and periodontal disease. Antiseptic mouthwashes help, but they are not a substitute for physically removing plaque.
Which brings us nicely to the next ‘stink site’.
TEETH
Tooth decay is the destruction of tooth structure by bacteria. It occurs when foods containing sugars (e.g. bread, cereals, milk, pop, fruit, cakes and sweets) are left on the teeth. Oral bacteria digest these foods and form plaque (remember that sticky gel that keeps the germs and their acid in contact with the teeth?) So while the bugs are destroying your gums, the acids are working on your teeth, dissolving enamel and digging holes. It’s an efficient system.
Left untreated, these cavities get bigger and deeper, destroying tooth structure and killing the living part of the tooth (the pulp). When sufficient tooth structure has been destroyed the tooth will collapse. When the tooth dies, you will get an abscess – which, in case you don’t know, is not fun.
And while all this is going on, food debris collects in the cavities. Unless you can remove all of it (which isn’t easy because cavities usually make excellent storage bins for crap) the trapped food will rot – and add to the smell.
To prevent tooth decay:
• Cut down on acid drinks and sweet foods, especially sticky ones which remain on the teeth for longer.
• Brush your teeth as soon as you can after eating – but DO NOT brush for half an hour after an acid drink (like fizzy pop or fruit juice). The acid in the drink softens the enamel so the brush can rub some of it away. Instead, rinse your mouth with water and wait – and never have an acidic drink just before you go to bed.
• Brush at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste. This is especially important before you go to bed because you produce less saliva while you’re asleep, and saliva is nature’s defence against bacteria and acids.
• Clean between your teeth daily with dental floss or interdental brushes.
• If you don’t live in a fluoridated water area, ask your dentist about fluoride supplements. Fluoride strengthens enamel, making it more resistant to acid attack.
• Chew sugar-free gum to stimulate saliva production.
• Ask your dentist about fissure sealants (a protective coating that can be applied to the chewing surfaces of back teeth.)
• Visit your dentist regularly so that problems can be found at an early stage when there has been less damage and treatment is simpler.
Research is constantly seeking new ways to prevent and treat tooth decay. One day it may be possible to restore everybody’s mouths to 100% health with a single pill. Until then, follow the regime above.
The third bad breath site is the TONGUE
If you were to magnify the surface of your tongue, you would see that it’s a lot like a shag pile carpet (only available in a smaller range of colours). Bacteria and food debris collect between the filaments and can contribute to a bad odour.
Mouthwashes help but really only mask the problem. You need to brush – or gently scrape – your tongue. Special brushes and scrapers are available for this and most toothbrushes have a ridged area on the back of the head designed for this purpose (yes that’s what they’re for). It can take a bit of getting used to and you shouldn’t try to go too far back (because, apart from anything else, vomit is highly acidic and bad for your teeth) but persistence will pay off.
SMOKING
The link between tobacco and heart disease, stroke, emphysema and cancer (especially, lung and throat cancers) is common knowledge, but smoking also has direct effects within the mouth:
Increased risk of developing oral cancer.
• Increased build up of plaque and tartar on the teeth.
• Increased risk of developing gum disease, the main cause of tooth loss because it destroys bone within the jaws.
• Increased incidence and rate of receding gums, uncovering the roots of teeth which become sensitive and are more likely to decay.
• Delayed healing following tooth extraction, periodontal treatment or oral surgery.
• Lower success rate for dental implant procedures. This can be so marked that many surgeons refuse to provide implants for smokers, preferring to concentrate on cases that are more likely to work.
• Inflammation of salivary gland openings.
• Discolouration of teeth and fillings.
• And of course, bad breath.
The mechanisms by which smoking (and other tobacco products such as snuff) cause so much harm are well known. If you want to find out about them, there’s no shortage of information in print and on line.
DIETING
Low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins are notorious for causing foul breath. Normally, the body burns carbohydrates as a source of energy but if these aren’t available, it burns fats instead. This is an effective way to lose weight but the fat-burning process produces chemicals called ketones that are released in the breath.
So, in this case, the halitosis isn’t an oral hygiene problem (unless you’re also not cleaning well, of course) and the only cure is to introduce some carbs into your diet.
You can, however, reduce or at least mask the odour by:
• Drinking more water to dilute the concentration of ketones.
• Swishing water around in your mouth after you eat.
• Chewing sugarless gum.
• Sucking sugarless mints – especially those that contain Xylitol, which may kill bacteria and help prevent cavities.
Chewing fresh parsley.
Ketones on the breath can also be a sign of uncontrolled diabetes. So, let me repeat, if you get an odour you can’t account for, please don’t ignore it. I’d hate to lose a reader.
So, to round up:
1. Get everything in your mouth clean and keep it clean – you may need professional help to achieve a stable, healthy state but you should be able to maintain it from there (if you follow ALL the instructions).
2. Look at your habits and look at your diet.
If there’s still a problem, it probably only means you’re missing something. But it might point to something more serious – so get yourself checked out.
And the world around you will be a sweet and lovely place.
I’m a dentist in Birmingham City Centre (UK).
Aug 13, 2010
Posted on Aug 13, 2010 in Teeth Whitening | 0 comments
http://badbreathremedycure.com/
will mouthwash remedy bad breath? False
Mouthwash only gets rid of bad breath temporarily.
As long as you brush your teeth, you should remedy bad breath? False
The truth is that most people only brush their teeth up to 45 seconds, which just doesn’t cut it.
When breathing into your hand, you’ll know if you have bad breath? False
When you breathe, you don’t use your throat the same way you do when you talk. When you talk, you tend to bring out the odors from the back of your mouth, where bad breath originates.
If you’re concerned about bad breath, make sure you’re taking care of your teeth and mouth properly. Some sugar-free gums and mints can temporarily mask odors.
The most common cause of halitosis (bad breath) is the anaerobic bacteria that live in a person’s mouth.
For the majority of people (85 to 90% of those who have bad breath [halitosis]), the single most frequent cause of bad breath problems is bacteria that live in their mouth. Some oral bacteria excrete odoriferous waste products. Bacteria, just like humans, consume food and excreting waste. The waste products produced by some oral bacteria are sulfur compounds. And it is these sulfur compounds that usually lie at the root of a person’s bad breath problem. Therefor making very difficult to remedy.
Have you ever smelled something rotten? The stench associated with something rotten is caused by the sulfur compound hydrogen sulfide. The stinky smell emanating from feed lots and barnyards is one created by the sulfur compound methyl mercaptan. The odor you associate with the ocean is in part due to the presence of dimethyl sulfide. And each of these types of sulfur compounds is also excreted as a waste product by the bacteria that live in our mouths.
How can you tell if you need to remedy a bad breath problem?
If our noses can’t reliably help us judge the quality of our bad breath, how can we determine if we do have bad breath? One remedy is to ask the opinion of a reliable and trusted friend or sibling. If you don’t feel you can ask them, ask your dentist or hygienist at your next dental appointment, after all, evaluating and remedying oral conditions is part of their job.
If you find this type of question too personal to ask, don’t overlook asking a child. As we all know, sometimes the least inhibited and most honest responses come from children.
Aug 5, 2010
Posted on Aug 5, 2010 in Teeth Whitening | 0 comments
Bad Breath In Kids
How To Cure Bad Breath In Less Than 72 Hours & Have Strong Healthy Teeth & A Sparkling White Smile For The Rest Of Your Life
There’s nothing worse than having bad breath. In fact, it’s probably one of the MOST embarrassing problems anyone can have because, when you suffer from bad breath, you make other people feel physically sick!
Seriously.
Bad breath is full of unhealthy (and potentially-dangerous!) chemical compounds. They are all extremely smelly, and combine to produce the odor we recognize as bad breath.
Some of the most common are:
Hydrogen sulphide, which smells like rotten eggs;
Methyl mercaptan and skatole, which smell like feces;
Cadaverine, which smells like corpses;
Putrescine, which smells like rotten meat; and
Isovaleric acid, which smells like sweaty feet!
Nice, huh!? That’s why people turn away… step back… and cover their nose and mouth when you’re near them. You see, even if they think you’re the greatest person they ever met, once their brain detects any of the above smells, it recognizes them as a potential source of infection and literally FORCES their body to automatically recoil. In other words: Their brain recognizes your bad breath as a DANGEROUS THREAT to their health and well-being!
So it’s little wonder then that, far from being a minor irritation, bad breath can…
Destroy relationships with family and friends.
Deny you the opportunity at an exceptional career.
Cripple your marriage, and turn loved ones away.
Flatten your confidence and self esteem.
And even cause severe depression.
In fact, in a survey by the British Dental Association in England, bad breath was rated as the MOST unattractive feature any person could have (followed closely by stale body-odor)!
Think about why that might be so: Even if you have it yourself, do you like to be near other people with bad breath? You might really like them, but the stench can start to get to you after a while. You might try to ignore it… but your brain won’t let you.
This is even truer when it comes to dating: Meeting someone of the opposite sex can be intimidating at the best of times but, when you bring bad breath into the equation, and consider the brain’s automatic response to it, you might as well get your coat and go home before the date even starts!
The same problem exists in the work-place: Your colleagues might to too polite to say it to your face, but it doesn’t mean they don’t talk about it behind your back. Consider these very unflattering comments by an office-worker about one of his co-workers who had bad breath:
“This guy at work has the worst case of bad breath ever! It’s sooo bad, you’d think he used shit for toothpaste! … As soon as I walk into the office, it just hits you smack in the face … Worse, when he’s talking, you have to try to slowly back away and hope he won’t notice … or pretend your nose is itchy to block the stench …”
Could somebody somewhere be saying stuff like that about YOU? It’s quite possible… but… even if you haven’t heard anything like that before, I’m guessing you don’t want to give anyone the opportunity to say it in the future. Most people don’t, and that’s why a massive industry has built up around “controlling” the problem of bad breath…
In fact, the exact figures involved are astonishing: Americans alone spend nearly $2 billion a year just on toothpaste; nearly $1 billion on mouth-washes and rinses; another $1 billion on toothbrushes and dental floss; and more than $625,000,000 on breath-freshener alone. That’s nearly $5 billion dollars each and every year!
But…
While there are some very powerful products on the market that tackle the symptoms of bad breath very effectively, they do little (or nothing) to address the root-cause. The net effect of this is that you have to continue using these products – some cost up to $100.00 a month! – again and again, year after year… forever!
Yet another problem is that, when you look for a solution on the Internet, you find lots (and lots) of very generic (and, frankly, useless) information. For example, one of the top websites that appears in Google when you search for solutions to bad breath specifically recommends “brushing your teeth and flossing every day”. While that’s great for your teeth, it does almost nothing to address the cause of bad breath. It’s also something you ALREADY know you should do anyway… and so, you ALREADY know doesn’t get rid of bad breath. In fact, you can have the cleanest teeth on the planet, but still have breath that smells like a dumpster!
With all these ultra-expensive “solutions” and the gigabytes of useless generic advice floating about, I decided to do some investigative work of my own, and, on-and-off for nearly 3 years, collected every snippet of information available on partially, or fully, eliminating bad breath, and spent more than $2,870.00 buying-up every publication… every report… and every single snippet of data that was out there on the subject…
The only real breakthrough I found was a small article in an obscure scientific journal describing bad breath research done in the 1970s at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is part of the U.S. Government’s Department of Health.
To make a long story short: About 90% of all bad breath cases have a single cause, and, for people in this group, the NIH researchers literally fell over a specific combination of common household ingredients that eliminated the bad breath problem 96 times out of 100!
Imris Mark is an Internet Preneurer. With vast experience in Internet Marketing and Business Start-Ups working from Home
Aug 4, 2010
Posted on Aug 4, 2010 in Teeth Whitening | 0 comments
There are several causes of bad breath, or halitosis, and one major cause is the bacteria which can be found in the average human mouth. This anaerobic bacteria thrives on remaining food particles, and then outputs what is known as Volatile Sulfur Compounds (VSC).
Volatile Sulfur Compounds have a smell similar to hydrogen sulfide, which is very similar to the scent of rotten eggs. Bad breath and halitosis can also be caused by the medications you are taking. By reviewing the types of medications you are taking, you could address whatever bad breath problems you are suffering.
Medications can be at fault because most of them tend to be drying to the sinuses or may dry up mucus, which is partly the result of postnasal drip. Some types of anti-anxiety drugs can have this drying up effect as well. If Several common medications of this type have this side effect, so if you are noticing this drying problem, check the package insert for these medications, or talk to your doctor or pharmacist. You do not have to live with this side effect of bad breath.
Here are some of the medications which are known to cause dry mouth as a side effect:
* Birth Control Pills
* Antihistamines
* Anti depressants
* Indigestion Remedies
* Nasal Decongestants
* Hormone Replacement Medicines
* High Blood Pressure Medicines
Some of these medications can have such a severe drying effect that you may be tempted to simply quit taking the medication so that you do not have to offend people with breath that smells like sulphur and rotten eggs. Neither of these alternatives is acceptable. Instead, try these tricks to keep your body hydrated:
* Drink lots of water or sugar free liquids.
* Drink water with some lime or lemon added, to make it more tasty.
* Skip or reduce caffeine, overly spiced foods, and salty foods whenever possible.
* Eat chewing gum, especially sugarless, to produce more saliva.
* Reduce stress.
* Use a room humidifier in your home or office.
An interesting fact is that just thinking about eating a sour food can stimulate saliva! Even when you don’t have a lemon or sour candy handy, just picture eating a lemon, and you can produce saliva! Saliva is highly effective in reducing bad breath, since it contains the bacteria-killing qualities needed to reduce bacteria in your mouth. Without sufficient saliva production, halitosis increases when you have dry mouth.
Once you take steps to check your medications to see which ones might cause dry mouth and bad breath, along with how you can produce more saliva, add some improved oral hygiene tips. There are many types of oral care that can help you improve your breath quality along with the other steps you are taking to reduce the impact of medications.
You must brush your teeth every day, at least once. The way you brush your teeth is important too. Using the correct brushing technique is critical to removing the food particles that can get stuck between teeth. By brushing daily, you reduce a large reason for bad breath. It’s also important to have regular dental checkups and get your teeth professionally cleaned to stop the effects of bacteria. One step that many people take is to brush their tongue. Take a look at your tongue in a mirror, and look for white substance on your tongue surface near the back. That substance can be removed by brushing with your toothbrush, or purchasing a tongue scraper at your local pharmacy. That white stuff can cause bad breath. Maintaining a healthy diet is important too, not just for overall health, but for reducing or eliminating bad breath.
Try this quick cleaning method when you find yourself in a situation where you want to make sure your teeth are clean but you aren’t able to brush. Take a drink of water, and swish the water around in your mouth. This can loosen and rinse away any particles of food that may be trapped in your teeth, which lead to bacteria and bad breath. Spit out the water after rinsing. Taking even this simple action can help!
By eating something healthy, such as vegetables or fruit, you can produce saliva from chewing and at the same time avoid the types of foods that can produce bad breath, such as candy or greasy chips. Eating a carrot or apple can produce saliva and keep plaque from forming.
One last item to consider is that low Vitamin C has been shown to be a possible cause of bad breath. Some habits such as smoking can cause a deficiency in Vitamin C. Try eating a snack that is high in Vitamin C, or taking a vitamin supplement can help your breath stay fresh.
