The Bad Breath Blog

Whether you give into greasy French fries, cheesy pizza or crunchy chips, you’re probably aware that it’s not super simple to look the other way when it comes to junk food. In a 2010 study conducted by Scripps Research Associate Professor Paul J. Kenny and graduate student Paul M. Johnson, published in the March 2010 online edition of Nature Neuroscience, the duo found that the same molecular mechanisms prone to drive people to drug addictions play a similar role in overeating. Similarly, many believe that junk food has addictive properties.

We all know that fast food wreaks havoc on the body, but fewer people are aware of the side effects it has on our oral health. Bad breath, canker sores and gum disease can all arise over time in individuals who find themselves constantly consuming junk food. Since most junk and fast food lack the proper vitamins and minerals the mouth and body need to stay functioning properly, bacteria and germs are able to prosper and cause issues.

Bad breath symptoms are the most common side effect of junk food consumption – these foods are often hard to digest and cause a buildup of gas. This gas is released through the mouth, causing a pungent smell that can only be masked by gum and mints. Similarly, oral health issues such as canker sores are caused by a diet that is lacking vitamin B-12, zinc, folic acid and iron. If you are consuming a large amount of junk and fast food, your body isn’t receiving enough of these vitamins to stay healthy.

But it may be difficult to just give up junk food all together, even if you’re aware of the health concerns it causes. Scripps Research performed a study on rats that completely lost control over eating habits overtime.

“They always went for the worst types of food, and as a result, they took in twice the calories as the control rats,” Kenny said. “When we removed the junk food and tried to put them on a nutritious diet – what we called the ‘salad bar option’ – they simply refused to eat. The change in their diet preference was so great that they basically starved themselves for two weeks after they were cut off from junk food.”

While it’s not necessary to give up all junk food, it is important to maintain a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables that contain vitamins for a healthy mouth and body.

Getting canker sores is a real pain in the butt! And for little kids, they can be painful – making drinking, eating and even brushing teeth a difficult task. One in five people get these uncomfortable mouth ulcers, which can occur inside the mouth, cheeks, lips, throat or even on the tongue. Although these can often be confused with cold sores, they aren’t contagious and usually go away overtime. Here are some ways to avoid these uncomfortable sores or prevent them from coming back.

If you have canker sores, chances are your child will too – they have a 90 percent chance! While luckily they aren’t harmful, no one is really sure where they come from. However, one’s diet is likely to exacerbate the occurrence of them. Children are often very difficult eaters, so getting them to eat food that will prevent canker sores can pose a challenge. These often show up because our diets lack enough vitamin B12, folic acid and iron, and if your child has food allergies, they are even more likely to pop up.

Canker sores can also be caused by minor trauma in the mouth such as a cut in the mouth. So if a child accidentally bites the side of their mouth, it could turn into a canker sore later.

What is a canker sore?

Canker sores come in three different varieties, although the most common is minor. If you notice a small, red spot that can reach up to an inch in diameter – but is commonly much smaller – this is a canker sore! It will feel tingly or burn a little, and over time it will swell up, burst and leave a “open” wound. This can get really sensitive especially when eating citrus or hot foods. Often times it takes about two weeks for a canker sore to heal completely, but it usually will only be bothersome for the first three to four days.

Prevention

If your child is prone to canker sores, you may want to switch their toothpaste to something without sodium laurel sulfate. This is the detergent in toothpaste that makes it foam up, but it actually isn’t good for us. It tends to cause dry mouth, so eliminating this detergent from your child’s regular routine could help with problems later in life. Dry mouth may seem minor, but it can lead to bad breath and other oral health issues later in life.

It is important to make sure your child is practicing good oral hygiene everyday. Some children loathe the time they have to spend in the bathroom brushing and flossing, but getting them used to the habit at a young age will help them greatly later in life. Parents can brush their teeth at the same time as children so they are brushing and flossing for the correct amount of time, and they’ll have a good influence to look up to.

When your child has a canker sore, using a cotton swab with peroxide on it can help kill bacteria and encourage a faster healing process. You can also try a rinse mixture by combining 2 ounces of hydrogen peroxide and 2 ounces of water, or 4 ounces of water with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda. If your child doesn’t like the taste – who could blame them – you can also use a wet black tea bag. Tea contains tannins that will relieve the pain in the sore.

The science of halitosis is constantly evolving. Things that were once considered the main causes of bad breath have often fallen by the wayside, as research has proven them to have little or no connection to oral odor. Consider this situation: You have two kinds of ulcers – aphthous ulcers (also known as canker sores) and a stomach ulcer. Which one is causing your bad breath?

It’s tempting to immediately choose the stomach ulcer, and for many years, oral health experts did just that. They knew that most halitosis comes from odor-causing bacteria (which is true), so they assumed that bad breath came from the stomach and digestive tract.

Today, though, we know that this simply isn’t true. In fact, a new study published in the Journal of Breath Research confirms as much.

Stomach ulcers hurt (but don’t stink)

Scientists from three different health centers in the Netherlands set out to see whether the bacterium that causes stomach ulcers – a nasty little beast called Heliobacter pylori – can also emit enough volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) to make breath smell bad.

It can’t.

As the Dutch team noted, “the concentrations of the VSCs in stomach air were in nearly all cases below the thresholds of objectionability of the various VSCs, indicating that halitosis does not originate in the stomach.” Hence, stomach ulcers can’t cause oral odor.

“Halitosis,” the authors added, “nearly always originates within the oral cavity and seldom or never within the stomach.”

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If you get a canker sore, you’ve got a wealth of modern treatment options at your fingertips. You can gargle a specialty alcohol-free mouthwash to neutralize the odor or, for a deeper clean, rinse with a periotherapy product. In a pinch, you can even gargle salt water! But it wasn’t always this easy. In the 1800s, canker sore treatments were a little more, shall we say, unpleasant.

One of the weirder and more instructive reads you’ll find on the matter is Samuel North’s The Family Physician and Guide to Health (Waterloo, NY: 1830).

Pages 109-110 are all about canker sores, and the discomfort and bad breath they cause. If you were to follow Mr. North’s advice on canker sores, these are some of the many odd remedies you might try:

- Wash them with soapsuds.

- Rinse with strong tea.

- Apply a pinch of cayenne pepper (yowch!), followed by a poultice of white bread and ginger soaked with tea.

- Hold on a piece of eggshell until it sticks, then let it naturally fall off after several weeks.

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Few things evoke a wincing quite like the mention of a canker sore.  Not to be used confused with cold sores (although those are equally disliked) canker sores are those annoying and painful sores that develop in your mouth, making it hard to eat, drink and even talk when they are at their prime. Canker sores are fairly common and short-lived (although it doesn’t seem like it while you have one). Here are some articles that discuss these pesky sores and how you can avoid them.

Having a canker sore is hard to ignore. A canker sore is an erosion of the inner membranes of the mouth and along with pain; they can also cause bad breath. What causes a canker sore? They occur because of bacterial infections but sometimes a small cut or other vexation is the culprit for inviting this microbial growth. What is the best way to try to avoid canker sores? Stay away from mouthwashes and toothpastes that contain sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or alcohol. These ingredients can irritate and dry out your tongue, checks and gums which can lead to inflammation of the delicate tissue in your mouth where canker sores occur.  These inflammations may attract bacteria, leading to a canker sore. Avoiding products with these ingredients can reduce your risk of getting an aphthous ulcer (which is what a canker sore is). If you do get canker sores frequently, you aren’t alone. An article in the British Medical Journal stated that canker sores are the most common condition of the mouth’s membranes in developed countries. Also, don’t worry about spreading the sores to your friends – they aren’t contagious.

Looking for another way to possible eliminate getting canker sores? David Zabriskie, a 32 year old road bicycle racer that participated in his sixth Tour de France this year told the UK Daily Mail what he plans to do to stop canker sores. He’s gone vegan! Not only has eliminating eggs, dairy products and meat from his diet and replacing them with protein-rich seeds and rice stopped his canker sores and saddle rash, but he also stated that this change in diet has actually boosted his performance. Is this just a rare occurrence that David is lucky enough to reap the benefits of? According to several sources, it has been noted that dietary changes can help stop and treat canker sores. Specifically, a study in the Journal of American Board of Family Medicine found that by increasing one’s vitamin B12 levels can help to heal canker sores more quickly. No doubt a change in Zabriskie’s diet gave him a boost of B12, which is also known for increasing energy. Experts still aren’t fully endorsing becoming vegan to eliminate canker sores, but it could be a healthy side effect of making the switch. Rather, since these aphthous ulcers are caused by irritation, dentists are telling patients to avoid oral care products that contain harsh chemicals like SLS and alcohol which can inflame the tissue of the cheeks and gums where canker sores often appear.

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