The Bad Breath Blog

Parents strive to teach their children good habits at a young age with the hope that they will continue a healthy lifestyle into adulthood. But once kids hit their teenage years, rebellion takes over and those productive manners may go out the window. Keeping up with good oral health habits as an adolescent can ensure that the gums, teeth and mouth are in top condition for a lifetime. Here are a few things to consider in order to maintain those pearly whites and fresh breath:

Gum

For many teenagers, chewing gum is routine. From the classroom to going out with friends, teenagers have a strange tendency to always be chomping down. While some gum can actually improve breath and help avoid dry mouth, typical packs from the super market are loaded with sugar. Instead of picking up a stick of gum with a layer of “fruit,” try sugarless gum made with the natural sweetener xylitol after meals. Consider having this all-natural gum around the house so your teenager won’t be tempted to pick up a sugar-loaded pack.

Piercings

Body piercings have become much more acceptable in modern society, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences that come along with them. Tongue and lip piercings can cause teeth to chip and gums to recede. In addition, these piercings can be prone to infection, which causes bad breath and creates other issues throughout the entire mouth. Encourage children to avoid this type of body art.

Soda/sports drinks

Teenagers can sometimes down soda like it is water! There are countless harmful side effects to drinking these carbonated beverages, and they can wreak havoc on the entire mouth. Not only is one can filled with 38 grams of sugar or more, its sticky, syrupy texture lingers on the teeth, gums and tongue for much too long. Drinking just one bottle of soda pop a day can increase the amount of anaerobic bacteria in the mouth, cause bad breath, promote tooth decay and dry out the mouth. Unfortunately, sports drinks are not much better. Kids who play sports in school tend to carry along one of these beverages after or during a meet or game, but they are often loaded with a similar amount of sugar as soda. Instead, encourage teenagers to drink plenty of water, or even coconut water. Coconut water is all-natural and rehydrates better than typical sports drinks.

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Having a good night’s sleep is pertinent for a healthy mind and body, but there are some issues that keep us up at night. Do you ever have to get up in the middle of the night to get some water? Suffering from dry mouth can cause pain and discomfort throughout the night and during the day, and it can also be a sign of other illnesses.

During sleep, the body is able to restore itself, but if you are waking up in the middle of the night to drink water, this restoration is being interrupted and can cause you to be groggy throughout the day. This can hinder work, weight loss, and increase stress and the probability of sickness. All because of your dry mouth symptoms!

What are the symptoms?

Although “dry mouth” is pretty straightforward, there are other symptoms that you may have as well. You may also have trouble swallowing, chewing and speaking without taking a sip of water. Other people may have cracked and sore skin inside the mouth, and you may have a sandpaper-like tongue.

What is causing it?

There are many reasons why you may be having dry mouth, some that are easily preventable and others are a larger issue that should be taken seriously. If you feel like you’re suffering from post nasal drip, this could be directly related to dry mouth. With this illnesses, the mucus becomes thick, which can sometimes make it challenging to breathe through the mouth.

“The sensation of post-nasal drip is not usually caused by an increased amount of mucus coming from your nose or sinuses,” Dr. Robert Dolan told EverydayHealth. “It is more likely to be caused by the mucus becoming too thick or by irritation of your throat. In my experience, the three most common causes are allergy, gastric reflux, and medications that cause dryness.”

Preventing post nasal drip entirely depends on where it is coming from. Oral medications and natural nasal sprays can combat this issue if it doesn’t stem from a larger illness.

What to change?

Are you a smoker? Do you eat unhealthy foods? Do you commonly drink alcohol or caffeinated beverages? These are all causes of dry mouth! Without having to change much of your lifestyle to combat bad breath, you can try to cut back on the amount of unhealthy things you intake. If you’re a smoker or an avid coffee drinker, make sure that you drink a glass of water afterwards to moisturize the mouth. Drinking a substantial amount of water each day will help eliminate dry mouth. Increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet can help dramatically as well. Because these items have a large amount of water in them, and vitamins and minerals, they keep the mouth healthy.

What does dry mouth lead to?

Dry mouth can lead to various other oral health issues such as tooth decay, bad breath, a lack of taste and mouth sores. Since the bacteria in our mouths have no chance to get flushed down by saliva – which is what normally happens – it just stays in our mouths and causes these issues. Mouth sores are more common because when there is no protective layer of moisture, there is a much higher risk of cuts and infections.

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.

Having bad breath in public is the worst! But sometimes we don’t even realize that our breath is causing the room to quickly empty. You know how people often say “If it were me, I’d like to know about it.” well, it’s easier said than done. When someone around you is suffering from halitosis, and it’s making interactions difficult, it may not be as simple as it seems to give them the heads up. Here are a few creative ways to let anyone from your boss to your sweetie know they are stinking up the room:

Insult yourself

Even if it isn’t true, saying that you feel like your breath is smelly may actually have another person feeling like they are experiencing the same thing. You can ask the other person if they have any mints or gum, which will likely lead them to snack on one of these remedies as well. If you have gum or mints, offer the other person one as well. You may want to find a unique way of offering them this bad breath killer, so ask if they’ve tried a new flavor or comment on a stick of gum being your go-to. However, stay away from sugary gum, because even though it might kick the smell for a time being, it will just make it worse overall.

Make up a character

You won’t want to blurt out that the person you’re standing next to has awful bad breath, so it might be helpful to make up a scenario when you ran into someone with extreme halitosis. Tell the person you’re with about a person that you met in the waiting room of a dentist’s office with chronic halitosis who was there for a deep cleaning to help get rid of bad breath. Explain that she was there because she found out she had gum disease, but wasn’t aware of how bad her breath was. This story may have the person re-thinking their oral hygiene, but it also could just make the person feel like they need a breath mint – like how talking about food can make you hungry even if you really aren’t.

Discuss good oral health

If you talk to the person about how you always forget to use mouthwash or floss, although your dentist suggests that you do this everyday, it may raise their consciousness about his or her own poor oral hygiene. If it is your beau that has bad breath, lead by example and practice good oral health in front of the person as much as possible. After eating a meal, excuse yourself to floss or use mouthwash. Women may want to carry around a travel size mouthwash and offer it to the person with bad breath. They won’t feel embarrassed if you think you also have bad breath.

Talk about a new product

If offering a mint or piece of gum doesn’t give the person you are with a hint that their breath stinks, talking about a great product you’ve recently tried out may help them in the long run. You could tell the person about a new alcohol free mouthwash or natural toothpaste that has done wonders to your mouth. If you are talking about how much you love a product, the other person may be inclined to try it out as well. Unfortunately, this is more of a long-term solution, though, and won’t help out in the moment.

Do you constantly feel like you’re battling issues of bad breath, and nothing seems to work? Many people suffer from halitosis for various reasons, and you may want to determine where your own problems stem from to properly get rid of it. Here are a few suggestions that – even though they seem obvious – some people overlook.

Brush your teeth!

Obvious? Yes – but some people still don’t brush their teeth effectively to get rid of halitosis. When you were a kid, did your dentist ever tell you to use an hourglass to figure out how long you should be brushing your teeth – about three minutes? This rule still applies. If your brushing sessions are much more brief and you forget to floss and scrape your tongue, you’re not getting rid of all the bacteria in your mouth that causes halitosis.

Also, you need to make sure you are brushing your teeth at least two times a day! Throughout the day, you’re eating food, drinking sugary beverages or even smoking, which causes bad breath. If you aren’t cleaning out your mouth well enough, the bacteria in your mouth has a field day with the sugar and other “food” that gets left behind.

Scraping your tongue is just as important as brushing your teeth, because thats where bacteria gets caught in your mouth – gross! Using alcohol free mouthwash will also help eliminate this bacteria.

Avoid Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and alcohol

You may be surprised that the toothpaste or mouthwash that you’re using actually contains these ingredients that make bad breath worse! Even if it has a “minty” taste, these ingredients dry out your mouth, which leads to bad breath. Using a natural toothpaste will help dramatically with bad breath because it works to kill the bacteria that causes this issue without any added substances that are artificial.

Get hydrated

Drinking plenty of water is really important in helping fresh, non-offensive breath! Why? Because water helps wash down food that may be lingering in your mouth, plus it keeps your mouth moist. Saliva is a natural antibacterial that helps get rid of bacteria in the mouth because it flushes down food particles and sugar that is left on your teeth.

Look at labels

Chewing on gum or popping mints can actually be fairly addictive, but if you are prone to this habit, you should make sure there isn’t sugar that is causing bad breath. Even though these products are often labeled as “breath freshening” they are just quick fixes.

“Make sure to check the label and see that your gum is sugarless since bacteria in the mouth are apt to ferment sugar, thereby making your icky breathe even worse,” Dr. Mitchell told She Knows. “While you’re at it you might consider slashing sugar from the rest of your diet as well to freshen your breath.”

Stay healthy

Bad breath is very often a side effect of a larger problem, and common colds or allergies are big culprits. The excessive mucus in your nose and throat contain bacteria that causes bad breath, and if your nose is stuffed up you’ll likely be breathing through your mouth. This is a bad habit to fall into because it dries out the mouth and further creates bad breath. If you feel as though your sinuses are getting clogged, you may want to invest in bacteria-killing sinus drops and stick to a regimen of gargling with salt water. Salt water helps battle bad breath-causing, and will soothe your throat if it is irritating. It will also help break down thick mucus, which will help the breath become fresher and cleaner.