Halitosis or Bad Breath

Typically, halitosis is caused by defectively dental hygiene. There are also many other factors that can lead to this unpleasant affection, including: gums illness, dental caries, salivary glands, infections of the respiratory tract (throat, nose, lungs, sinus), inadequate diet, constipation, indigestion, smoking, fever, diabetes, indigestion, liver or kidney dysfunctions or alcohol abuse.

If you wake up in the morning and you realize that you have bad breath, you must know that this is probably the result of poor hydration or maybe the result of reduced quantities of saliva - this is very important, because it "washes" your mouth bacteria.

Poor nutrition can make you have bad breath, because your body tries to decompose the stored proteins and fats. The metabolic products that come from this process of degradation have a very bad smell, and when they are exhaled from your lungs they cause your bad breath.

So what can you do about it?

* The most important thing is keeping your mouth clean. Take care of your toothbrush, because it has to be clean; maybe using oxygenated water or extract from grapefruit seeds can help you.
* Hydrating your body? The answer to this is simple: water. But you have to drink quality water, and the amount has to be generous. The impurities in water (as suspended particles, sodium salts, nitrates, micro-organisms, inorganic and organic compounds etc.) can cause very important problems to your health, and your body may respond to this sooner or later.
* A green diet can help you as well as the pure water by ousting the toxins from your body.
* Food enriched with condiments must be eliminated from your diet. The smell of condiments can last for hours. Some annoying oils with a pungent smell are contained in this kind of food and those oils remain in your mouth up to 24 hours.
* You may gargle as much as you want or you may wash your mouth, but those oils are persistent. They don't disappear that easy.

The coffee is another substance that "helps" you have halitosis. Coffee places little particles on your tooth enamel or right into your digestive system. Every exhale brings a bad smell back into your mouth. But coffee is not the only drink to cause bad breath. Beer also causes bad breath. Whiskey, wine or other drinks containing alcohol all have the same result. That's why an alcoholic is predisposed to bad breath.

You have to be very careful when choosing your mouthwash. Many of the commercial mouthwashes contain only some alcohol, colorants or different flavors to make them tasty. Mouthwash help you eliminate bad breath, but this only happens for a short time. Frequent use can irritate your gums, your tongue and the mucous membrane.

Halitosis is a very important symptom often of something more serious with your digestive system so you should take it seriously. Only a doctor can diagnose and tell you how to manage it.

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