Bad breath, or halitosis, is one of the most common and embarrassing health problems. And yet for years people have been using popular but ineffective cures for stinky breath. In fact, some of the most common home remedies are making their breath smell even worse.
Here are five of the worst bad breath solutions:
1. Popping breath mints all day long. Mints only mask smelly breath for a few seconds, they don't cure bad breath. Worse still, if the breath mints contain sugar, they may cause tooth decay which can often increase the problem.
2. Constant use of mouthwash. Gargling with mouthwash a few times a day can produce a stinky tissue or film inside the mouth that can make your bad breath smell even worse. Mouthwashes that contain alcohol increase the problem as alcohol dries out the mouth, allowing the bacteria that cause stinky breath to breed even more.
3. Switching from ordinary cigarettes to menthol flavored cigarettes. Smoking causes halitosis and other dental problems as the tar and nicotine from cigarettes stick to your teeth, gums and tongue. Switching from standard cigarettes to menthol-flavored ones make no difference as it's not the smell of the smoke that causes the mouth odor, it's the bacteria that has grown within the mouth itself.
4. Brushing teeth with household cleaners. In surveys, dentists have reported that some patients attempt to brush their teeth with all kinds of household cleaners, thinking that if they use a stronger cleaner, they can solve their smelly breath problems faster. That idea 'stinks' if you pardon the pun. There are harsh chemicals inside household cleaning products that are not designed to be taken internally and may even pose a danger to your health.
5. Avoiding social contact. Knowing you have bad breath can make you self conscious and ruin your social life as you try and avoid facing people. But the stress of feeling embarrassed and the need to avoid human contact can actually make your mouth smell worse. Why can stress cause bad breath? On average, a normal person secretes 1.5 liters of saliva a day. When someone is in a stressful state, the saliva flow is reduced, causing dry mouth, which is one of the most common bad breath causes. So try to keep yourself stress-free and keep up your normal active social life.
So those are the five popular bad breath home remedies that don't work. What about a treatment for halitosis that does work?
Here's a halitosis remedy taken from a medical study in Japan. Dr Kenichi Hojo of Tsurumi University in Yokohama, Japan conducted a test with 24 volunteers to test effective bad breath solutions. He found that sugarless yogurt reduced the levels of oral hydrogen sulfide (one of the compounds that cause breath to smell) in up to 80% of the participants. They took about 3 ounces of the yogurt twice a day for 6 weeks.
The active bacteria in the yogurt, namely Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilius, prevented the 'bad' bacteria from growing and thriving.
There are permanent solutions for stinky breath.
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