5 Causes of Bad Breath

Bad breath, also known as halitosis, can creates social embarrassment and anxiety, or worse, affects personal and business relationships. Here are 5 causes of bad breath.

How to know if you have halitosis

• Breathe out forcefully through your mouth into a cupped hand and inhale through your nose immediately.
• Scrape the surface of your entire tongue from back to front with a spoon. Allow it to dry, then smell it.
• Ask a relative or close friend to tell you honestly.

1. Infection or inflammation in the mouth, nose and throat

• Bad breath can occasionally stem from small stones that form in the tonsils and are covered with bacteria that produce odor
• Infections or chronic inflammation in the nose, sinuses or throat
• Poor dental hygience
• Laryngopharyngeal reflux
• Bronchitis

2. Dry mouth

Saliva helps clean and flush the mouth of food and other particles. Saliva maintains a balance of healthy bacterial flora in the mouth. Causes of dry mouth:

• Reduced production of saliva during sleep allows oral bacterial to flourish, particularly in mouth-breather and those who do not maintain oral cleanliness before sleep. The flourishing of oral baterial causes bad breath commonly known ‘morning breath’
• Blocked nose due to deviated nasal septum, polyps, tumor, or enlarged turbinates, adenoids or tonsils
• Disease of salivary glands, insufficient water intake, medication, antihistamines, decongestants or diuretics
• Nose cancer, oral cavity or larynx, especially after surgery and radiation therapy

3. Diet

• Consumption of odorous food items, such as onion, garlic or curry

4. General health diseases

• Pneumonia, diabetes, liver and kidney disease

5. Smoking

• Smoking cigarette cause dry mouth, altering the balance of healthy bacterial flora

Self-treatment

Before seeing a specialist, try these steps first:

• Keep mouth moist at all times
• Drink adequate amounts of plain water
• Eat fresh fruits and vegetables (apples, carrots, etc)
• Chew sugarless dental chewing gum
• Regularly floss and brush teeth and clean oral appliances
• Use mouthwash
• Avoid halitosis-causing foods
• Use a chinstrap to prevent mouth-breathing during sleep
• Don’t smoke

If these steps fail to counter the condition, consult an ENT specialist. Treatment depends on the cause. Your ENT specialist will identify the cause and treat it accordingly.