Halitosis - How to Combat Bad Breath

We all know that morning breath can be a problem, and that sometimes during the day, we can eat a meal that causes bad breath or when we are sick we might have halitosis, but most of us don't know why that happens. Let's first look at some of the causes of bad breath, and then we can move on to discuss ways to combat bad breath for ourselves, and even explore some interesting ways to handle bad breath when we must be close to someone who suffers from it.

First, let's start with morning breath. According to Bill Nye, the Science Guy, during the night, or rather, while we are sleeping, the flow of saliva slows. When this happens, our mouths will not receive as much oxygen as when we are awake and active. Because of this, anaerobic bacteria, the kind that doesn't need oxygen to grow and breed, are produced in our mouths. When these bacteria are produced, they put off waste products that contain sulfur - which doesn't smell so great - and that is the cause of bad morning breath.

Solving morning breath is pretty easy - you can wake and brush your teeth and the bad breath will disappear. Brushing your tongue also helps reduce the smell and can help keep your breath fresher during the day, or at least until your next meal.

If you'd like to try to prevent morning breath, you can take two steps: one, brush your teeth and especially your tongue right before going to bed, and two, drink a glass of water or gargle with clean water right before going to bed after you have brushed your teeth. This will eliminate as much bacteria as possible and help with bad morning breath when you wake.

Bacteria is not the only culprit for bad breath. There are a lot of different foods that can cause bad breath too. If you want to keep your breath fresh, you should avoid any foods that contain sulfur, such as onions. You'd be surprised if you look at the ingredients of a lot of processed foods how many of them contain onion or onion powder.