Bad breath sometimes becomes a social stigma and sometimes become a cause of psychological trauma as people avoid talking to you or refrain from coming near to you.
How to avoid it?
Three easy things to do:
1. Practice effective Oral Hygiene:
- Brush twice daily especially at night. Brush into the gum margins.
- Floss and clean between the surfaces of each of your teeth.
- Scrape the topside of your tongue to remove odour forming bacteria and microscopic food remnants.
2. Swish with warm water and use sugarless chewing gums after meals mainly after lunch:
- Water acts as a cleansing agent and dissolves stinky substances.
- Sugarless gums loosen food and dead cells from the teeth, gums and tongue and foster saliva production. Sugar-free gums sweetened with xylitol is particularly effective as xylitol inhibits mouth bacteria.
3. Avoid foods that taint your breath:
- Avoid garlic and onions as both have smelly sulphur compounds that lingers in your mouth and get absorbed in the bloodstream and expelled when you exhale.
- Avoid coffee and alcohol as both create a favourable environment for oral bacterial growth and they also have a drying effect which reduces saliva flow and allows foul-smelling bacteria to linger longer.