Remove bad breath from your life
When thinking of oral hygiene and oral care, bad breath is easily one of the most frequent complaints, especially among working-class and socially active people, and among students. It’s considered an acute social embarrassment, to the point that many people fear their mouths are emitting bad breath even when they aren’t. Medically known as halitosis, the disease is usually temporary – for most people, bad breath disappears after brushing, having a mint, or getting a mouthwash. For about one-fifth of the population, however, bad breath is permanent, and with it comes a painful social stigma and bouts of inferiority complex.
Bad breath occurs from anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that live without air) which exist on the surface of the mouth, tongue and throat. They act on the proteins eaten daily and create smelly sulfur compounds. Bad breath, especially if it’s persisting in an individual, may have a number of causes. Improper dental hygiene and insincere brushing of the teeth is a leading cause. Plaque covering the tongue makes bad breath almost inevitable. Many people forget that cleaning the tongue is as important a task as cleaning the teeth. If you are eating a meal rich in garlic and onion, or if you are having alcohol, washing the mouth afterwards is a must. Smoking stains bad breath, and is usually ‘masked’ by having a mint afterwards, but that is a temporary solution. Similarly, other diseases in the body might affect bad breath – especially diabetes, lung abscess, throat infection etc. You might also want to look at the medical prescriptions you have been taking.
Whether temporary or persistent, bad breath can be removed by adopting some regular practices, which most people and young students tend to neglect due to lack of time and over-work. Brush your teeth in the morning and evening, and after every meal, especially if you have taken milk products, meat, fish and alcohol. Avoid using alcohol-based mouthwashes. Washing the mouth with baking soda makes it less acidic, killing off odor-causing bacteria. The tongue must be cleaned while brushing as well. Rinse your mouth a lot and drink a lot of water during the day. Herb-based toothpastes can be beneficial, since most of them contain neem and lavang which are natural mouth fresheners, and oils of ginger, eucalyptus, spearmint etc. which soothe out the different tastes in the mouth. Among all the parts of the body, our mouth is exposed to the most bacteria, so just a little more attention to it everyday can drastically reduce bad breath.
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