Take my bad breath away

Don’t forget to clean your tongue daily as between 60% and 80% of the bacteria that cause bad breath are found on it. — dpa

Bad breath can have many causes – and what you eat is not always to blame.

The hardest step in getting rid of bad breath is often finding out that you have it.

Garlic, onions and beer are among the usual suspects for bad breath, known medically as halitosis.

The actual culprit may not be food though, but bad toothbrushing habits, or sometimes, even an underlying health condition.

Bacteria in your mouth are usually to blame for the unwanted odour.

And what you eat naturally plays a role too.

“Bad breath is often caused by certain foods or poor oral hygiene,” points out dentist Dr Christoph Sliwowski.

“When bacteria in your mouth break down food particles, unpleasant-smelling sulphur compounds are produced.”

If you don’t brush your teeth and tongue regularly and thoroughly, more food particles remain in your mouth and plaque (a sticky film of bacteria) forms on your teeth, “increasing the foul odour of sulphurous gases,” he explains.

Preventing bad breath

To combat bad breath effectively, you need to practice good oral hygiene that goes beyond daily toothbrushing.

“This includes using dental floss, for example,” says German Dental Association president Dr Christoph Benz.

“Cleaning your tongue is important too,” he adds, because between 60% and 80% of the bacteria that cause bad breath are found on the tongue.

“Daily cleaning with a tongue scraper will sharpen your sense of taste, make your mouth feel fresher and reduce bacteria.”

Saliva production plays a big role as well.

“If too little saliva is present – because you don’t drink enough fluids or have a dry mouth due to anxiety or stress – your breath will have a pungent odour,” he says.

Using chewing gum can help.

“It’s a great way to prevent bad breath,” Dr Benz says.

“It cleans your teeth, and at the same time, stimulates saliva production.

“It’s important that the gum is sugarless though.”

Dr Sliwowski also recommends mouthwashes – in moderation.

“Mouthwashes provide extra cleaning and freshen your breath,” he says, but cautions that they shouldn’t be used constantly, as they can disrupt the normal balance of oral flora.

Causes of bad breath

If you brush your teeth and tongue daily, yet still have the feeling – or are told by others – that you’ve got chronically bad breath, you should see a dentist, who can determine the cause, he says.

The root of the problem could be periodontitis, which is a severe inflammation of the gums, or ill-fitting dentures if you wear them.

In rare cases, a disorder of the stomach or oesophagus (food pipe) is responsible.

Short-term bad breath is often the result of the foods we’ve eaten most recently.

Garlic is notorious in this regard.

A natural constituent of fresh garlic is the amino acid derivative alliin, an odourless sulphoxide.

But when garlic is chopped, crushed, cooked or chewed, an enzyme converts alliin into the organosulphur compound allicin, which does smell.

Allicin then breaks up into other pungent organosulphur compounds, including ajoene.

These stinky compounds stick to the mucous membrane of the mouth, enter the bloodstream via the digestive tract and exit the body in part through the skin.

“Smoking or drinking alcohol intensifies the smell,” Dr Sliwowski says.

“If you want to tone down the unpleasant effect, you shouldn’t chop or crush the cloves,” he advises.

Instead, you could cook them whole and then remove them, leaving the food with a garlicky aroma.

“As an alternative,” he says, “some foods take the edge off bad breath.

“Chewing parsley, mint or sage, for instance, releases essential oils that counteract bad breath caused by garlic.”

Eating a raw apple or drinking lemon juice or green tea can neutralise the offending sulphur compounds as well.

And when you eat something spiced with garlic, it’s important to drink plenty of fluids to wash down the food particles and stimulate saliva production.

Do I have bad breath?

All of this advice is well and good, but you’ve got to realise you have bad breath before you can combat it.

This is often a problem.

“It’s like all chronic smells: Once you get used to it, you don’t notice it any more,” says Dr Benz.

“That’s why a lot of people aren’t aware of the foul smell in their mouth.”

If you think you might be one of them, ask people close to you for an frank assessment.

“Studies show that honest questions get honest answers, even when they involve bad breath, which is still a taboo subject,” he says.

There’s a way to test your breath yourself: “Put some of your saliva on your inner wrist, let it dry briefly and then sniff it,” he recommends, noting that it must have a very strong foul odour to indicate bad breath.

But some people have an exaggerated self-awareness in this regard, thinking they have bad breath when they don’t, he says.

For example, you shouldn’t make the mistake of sniffing dental floss after using it, since “it’ll never have a pleasant smell”. – By Julia Felicitas Allmann/dpa