How To Manage Bad Mouth Odour.
What is Mouth Odour?
Have you ever had reasons to give someone a reasonable distance when talking to you?
At some point, you might have experienced the uncomfortable situation of someone with a bad mouth odour talking to you.
This unpleasant health condition is medically known as Halitosis.
This problem is triggered by a sulphur-producing bacteria in the tongue and throat.
Interestingly, halitosis also arises from poor dental health habits, mouth infections, unhealthy lifestyles and other factors.
Commonly known as mouth odour, it could also be a sign of other health problems.
To effectively understand how to manage bad mouth odour, it is important to understand the possible causes.
This leads us to the next topic of discussion - common causes of bad mouth odour.
Common Causes of Bad Mouth Odour (Halitosis).
Many factors could be responsible for bad breadth. A number of them are listed below:
1. Food:
During the consumption of food, remnants of food particles may settle in the mouth. If not cleaned frequently, bacteria in the mouth may act on these food particles to cause mouth odour, especially through infection.
Similarly, certain foods like garlic, onion, ginger, and spices may sometimes leave an unpleasant odour in the mouth when consumed.
2. Poor Dental Hygiene:
Generally, an unkept mouth is a breeding ground for germs that could cause mouth odour.
Food residues trapped in mouth parts such as teeth, tongue, and gum could easily encourage unfavourable microbial activities.
If unattended, this could cause significant damage to a person's oral health.
3. Consumption of Tobacco Products:
Smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products are habits known to cause bad breath.
Smoking leaves an unpleasant odour in the mouth of smokers and also weakens the gum & teeth.
Such weakened gum & teeth could breed diseases and cause bad breath.
4. Dry Mouth:
Many people don't know, but dry mouth could also cause bad mouth odour.
Dry mouth also known as (xerostomia) is particularly caused when the mouth cannot produce enough saliva to keep the mouth wet.
A moist mouth through produced saliva helps to clean the mouth by removing bacteria causing mouth odour.
This is the mouth's natural way of cleaning itself.
However, dry mouth is most prevalent during sleep. In chronic cases, dry mouth is caused by problems with the salivary gland or other types of diseases.
5. Mouth Infection:
When the mouth is infected by bacteria or any other infection-causing organism, in severe cases the infection may develop into pus or abscess.
The injured mouth parts affected by the puss or abscess could cause pain & bad breath in the mouth of the affected person.
When left untreated, the infection may spread to other parts of the mouth rapidly, worsening the mouth odour in the affected victim.
6. Medications:
Bad mouth odour has also been known to be caused by the use of certain drugs with a strong unpleasant odour.
Many times, these drugs or herbs upon getting into the digestive system, release certain chemicals in the stomach.
The released chemicals are sometimes contained in the breath and carried back to the mouth.
This condition is why you notice that when a person with bad breath belge or yawns, the breath from the person's mouth is heavily filled with an unpleasant stench.
Such stench from the person's mouth heavily contains a foul odour fairly similar to the odour of medications taken.
Symptoms of Bad Mouth Odour.
The most obvious symptom of mouth odour otherwise known as bad breath is unpleasant odour coming from the mouth of an affected person.
It is also commonly known that the odour typically gets worse in the morning and after eating certain food types like onion and garlic.
In some cases, the condition may not be easily noticed by the affected person. In such cases, it's people around the affected person that easily perceive the offensive odour.
Some cases might be accompanied by pain in parts of the mouth due to infection.
However, the most obvious symptom of mouth odour is the unpleasant odour that is perceived from the mouth during talking, yawning, laughing, spitting, eating, and any other activity that has to do with the movement of the mouth. Other notable symptoms of mouth odour are:
- Dry mouth.
- Thick saliva.
- Constant need to clear the throat.
- Frequent sour bitter taste in the mouth.
- White coating on the tongue, especially at the back.
Effects of Bad Mouth Odour.
The bulk of human socialization has to do with verbal communication. However, due to the offensive odor from the mouth, people with bad breath are affected in the following ways:
- Inability to freely & confidently interact with people.
- People with bad breadth are easily discouraged from making public address due to their poor oral health condition.
- Bad breath can negatively affect personal relationships. This is because loved ones may easily get frustrated by the offensive odour from the mouth of the victim.
- People with the condition may suffer from low self-esteem, especially due to the hostile treatment from people around them.
- Bad breath can cause depression due to hostile treatment from people.
- Mouth odour reduces the level of confidence & self-esteem of a person when interacting with other people.
- Mouth odour could make a person vulnerable to being bullied among less tolerant people.
- Due to bad mouth odour, interest in a career or academic pursuit could be affected significantly.
Cure For Mouth Odour.
As unpleasant as the condition of mouth odour can be, the good news is that it can be managed and cured.
Depending on the type and cause of mouth odour, some remedies could be adopted to cure bad breath.
Below are some helpful tips for managing and curing mouth odour;
• Adopt proper and frequent oral hygiene. This includes brushing the mouth frequently, at least twice daily.
Flossing is also highly recommended to remove food items stuck in hidden parts of the mouth.
• Frequent use of mouthwash containing anti-bacterial contents such as cetylpyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, or hydrogen peroxide.
• Mouth infection should be treated immediately. This would limit the avenues on which bacteria-causing mouth odour could breed.
• Smoking and other unhealthy habits should be refrained from.
It has been discovered that smoking causes great harm to the mouth. It affects the teeth, gum, tongue as well as microbial life of the mouth.
• People who use dentures are advised to remove them frequently and clean them.
This helps reduce the chances of having bacteria breeding on them as conducive grounds for mouth odour.
• Especially in the case of dry mouth, continuous production of saliva is important. To achieve this, food (fruits & vegetables) rich in water, vitamins, & minerals are highly encouraged for consumption.
• Most importantly, people with mouth odour should seek professional help from a dentist, especially if the bad breath persists for long.
In summary, bad breath remains a big challenge that could negatively affect the self-esteem, career, relationship and general social life of an affected person.
To achieve a better social connection with people, our oral health must be in good condition. This could be achieved by adopting the listed recommendations in the guide above.
Through this, we can be assured of a better life with other people with sound oral health.
