The Bad Breath Blog

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.

Is there anyone that actually enjoys or looks forward to going to the dentist? Probably not. The strange sounds, the drills, the smells, the needles and the dental bill definitely don’t make anyone want to visit the dentist more often than they need to. However, some inventors at London South Bank University, Brunel University and King’s College London have come up with  a new device that cancels out high-pitched sounds from dental drills that set many nerves on edge.

Pretty cool right? This device plugs into an MP3 player so the nervous patient can listen to his or her own music while being worked on. Rather than the high pitched screams from the drill, this device cancels out that sound completely. But what if the dentist or technician is talking to you? No problem – the inventors have that covered by including adaptive filtering.  This allows the patient to still hear what the dentist is saying but cancels out the drilling sounds. How is it done? Adaptive filtering targets a specific sound wave even when the volume and frequency of that wave changes. This great  invention is all thanks to professor Brian Millar of King’s College who came up with the initial idea.

So when can we start using these devices? It’s not quite that simple yet. Millar states, “What we need now is an investor to develop the product further, to enable us to bring this device to as many dental surgeries as possible, and help people whose fear of visiting the dentist stops them from seeking the oral healthcare they need.”

Hopefully an investor will be found and soon, rather than dreading the dentist visit, we’ll be creating a playlist for it. Don’t forget, the best way to prepare your mouth for a regular dentist visit is to use the TheraBreath products that are right for you. If you aren’t sure which ones are best for your needs, just take our quick online breath evaluation for free.

According to studies, almost 50% of bosses said they wouldn’t hire someone if the candidate had poor teeth or bad breath.  Many have admitted that they turned down people because of their appearance.

High importance is placed on appearance at a job interview.  It is said that if a person is too lazy to look good and take care of their hygiene, they may be lazy when it comes to doing their actual job. 

Some other things that made employers uninterested in hiring someone were tattoos, facial piercings, bad skin, and even excessive sweating.  Also found in the study, 15% of people seeking employment considered having cosmetic surgery to increase their chances of getting a job, and 3% have already gone through with the surgery.  The most popular types of cosmetic surgery were: cosmetic dentistry, breast implants, and facelifts.

Also, according to some cosmetic surgery specialists, 1/5 workers believe that their appearance has prevented them from going further in their careers.

Source:  Express.co.uk

There are many things that people may not realize regarding oral care and its relationship to overall health.  Dental health is a very important thing and should not be neglected.  Here are certain things that you may not have known about dental care and dentists:

Pay More Attention

• Just because your mouth may not hurt, does not mean it is healthy. 
• Your oral health can affect the rest of your body
• People with HEALTHY gums should go to the dentist twice a year.  Most people do not.  If your gums are NOT healthy, you should go even more. 
• People tend to brush their front teeth more, and many people have periodontal disease in their back teeth because of this
• People tend to spend around 2-3 minutes total brushing per day, even though proper oral care requires at least ten minutes of brushing and flossing each day.  Kids tend to spend even less time than adults. 

Bad Breath

• Chewing gum or mints is not going to cover up the smell from smoking cigarettes.  This is because the smell is deeply ingrained in the mouth and gum tissues.
• Most dentists won’t tell you if you have halitosis unless you ask.
• People need to floss since brushing does not go deep into the gums.  If a person brushes and flosses properly, gets regular cleanings, and STILL has bad breath, then he or she should check into diet and health complications.

Children’s Teeth

• Dentists may secretly blame parents when their kids’ teeth go bad.
• Cavity-causing bacteria CAN be spread from person-to-person via saliva.  This includes parents to children– if a parent tastes a baby’s food, and puts the same spoon back into the baby’s mouth, the baby is at risk.
• Children with dental problems, like toothaches, tend to have more problems in school.
• There’s a significant risk of infection with any kind of mouth piercing if it is not performed in a sterile environment.  Also, tongue piercings tend to chip the front teeth.

Patient Concerns

• Having metal fillings removed can release more mercury than leaving them in.  Metal fillings are much more durable than tooth-colored fillings.
• People are exposed to more radiation standing outside for an hour than they are when they have dental X-rays taken.
• People are getting teeth pulled that don’t need to be just because they can’t afford to fix them.
• Very few insurance companies cover dental implants, even though they’re better than dentures
• Teeth that are not aligned correctly can cause migraines. 
• Bleeding gums is one of the first signs of diabetes. 
• Did you know that teeth get whiter when they dry out?  If you go to the dentist to get your teeth whitened, and your mouth is left open for an hour, the teeth could be two shades whiter from dehydration alone. 
• Cosmetic dentistry only works in a healthy mouth.  Always treat your gum disease first.
• When you go to the dentist, check to see if the magazines in the waiting area are up-to-date…this shows if they pay attention to detail.

Here is an interesting quote by dentist Damian Dachowski: “When someone meets you for the first time, the first thing they notice is eyes. Second is teeth, and third is hair. But people spend way more money on their hair than their teeth.”

Source: Reader’s Digest

Babies are not born with caries-forming bacteria.  They only get it directly if someone blows on food before feeding it to the baby, or if someone kisses the baby and germs get in the mouth.

One of the main sweetening agents in toothpaste, Saccharine Sodium, is actually 500 times sweeter than sugar!  This is not in TheraBreath’s toothpaste.

If you have a cold, sore throat, or some type of infection, make sure to replace your toothbrush.  Bacteria can live on them and proliferate, possibly leading to reinfection.

Try to keep your toothbrush at least 6 feet away from where you brush.  Airborne bacteria from a flush can travel up to 6 feet. 

The year the most popular carbonated drink was launched, there was a massive surge of patients with tooth decay.

Children below 5 years of age should be given non-fluoridated toothpastes, because it can be harmful to swallow too much fluoride. 

Replacing the cap on a toothpaste tube after brushing your teeth allegedly helps bacteria proliferate.

Brushing your teeth too fast or hard can contribute to the problem of enamel erosion, which causes teeth sensitivity, tooth decay, and other oral health problems.

Source: dentalhealthsite.com