Dental Consultants Uncovering and Eliminating Bad Breath

Dental hygiene is crucial to maintaining healthy teeth and a beautiful smile… many serious oral health issues begin with neglect of simple dental hygiene habits such as flossing, brushing, or professional teeth cleaning. While these tasks are simple and inexpensive, they make a substantial difference in the prevention of oral diseases. Halitosis is a term for bad breath that describes the unpleasant odors you experience when exhaling in breathing. It is estimated to be the third most frequent reason people seek dental care, next to tooth decay and periodontal disease. Dental Consultants often have patients who are unaware of their bad breath problem, and conversely, there are patients who insist they have halitosis when the evidence cannot be found. It is important to recognize when you have bad breath, because it often means you are not brushing or rinsing properly, or eating foods or drinking things that require more frequent brushing, flossing, and rinsing; and leaving these germs and bacteria in your mouth not only causes halitosis, but can also cause other more severe problems if left unattended.

Source

Gum disease is a direct result of poor dental hygiene and is preventable. If not detected early the condition of gum disease can lead to tooth abscess or tooth loss. Your gums will turn red and puffy and may bleed every time you brush. Gum disease can also lead to halitosis (bad breath), gingivitis, tooth decay, or teeth that are loose or appear to have shifted. The source of bad breath problems can be anywhere from the mouth to the airway path, but often the case is that the mouth is the first area checked for suspicion, because it is most often the source of halitosis. Once food is absorbed into the bloodstream, it is transferred to the lungs, and that is where it is expelled. You may be able to brush, floss or rinse to get rid of your bad breath, but this is only temporary and only masks the problem, so if bad breath is always an issue for you whether you eat certain foods or not, then you need to speak to your dentist about your halitosis. Dieters often experience bad breath from the infrequent eating. One thing Dental Consultants have found is that a person often is ill equipped to determine their own presence or absence of bad breath, as well as the cause. All of the food you eta begins the breakdown process while in your mouth. As the food is digested, it is carried to the lungs. These odors will not go away until the foods have passed completely through your body.

Causes

Bad breath is often caused by xerostomia, or dry mouth, which occurs when the saliva flow decreases in the mouth. Saliva is necessary for removing the particles that cause odor and cleansing the mouth. There are various medications that can cause dry mouth, as well as salivary gland issues, or continuously breathing through the mouth instead of the nose. If it is found that you suffer from dry mouth, your dentist may prescribe artificial saliva, or may suggest eating sugarless candies or increasing your fluid intake. Tobacco products like chew or cigarettes can also cause bad breath. Halitosis may be a sign of a medical disorder, like an infection in the respiratory tract, chronic sinusitis, postnasal drip, bronchitis, diabetes, or a kidney ailment. If the Dental Consultants determines that your mouth is healthy, he may refer you back to your family physician to go more in depth to determining your bad breath problem. Chronic bad breath is a problem that millions of people across the country share, so you are not alone. Your dentist is used to his patients coming in with the problem. If you are unsure of whether you have bad breath, you can always confide in someone close to you like a sibling or significant other on whether they have noticed a breath problem or not. Sometimes people are embarrassed to tell you if you have bad breath, but once you ask, they are open to letting you know your problem so you can better describe to your dentist when it seems to be most noticeable. This will also help pinpoint exactly what is causing it. If you don’t brush your teeth daily, food particles will remain in your mouth, which will promote bacteria growth between your teeth and around the gums, as well as on the tongue.

Prevent and Treat

To prevent the occurrences of gum disease or tooth decay the surfaces and areas between the teeth and under the gum line must be maintained and treated on a regular basis in order to ensure proper dental hygiene. Most plaque can be removed with routine oral hygiene care by carefully brushing your teeth at least two or three times a day, flossing daily and vigorously rinsing your mouth to remove food. To control plaque, add routine prophylaxes, more commonly known as cleanings, provided by a registered dental hygienist. The dental hygienist also will counsel you about plaque control and develop an at-home oral hygiene program designed specially for your personal oral health care needs. If your odor is due to periodontal disease, also known as gum disease, then your Dental Consultants can choose to either threat the disease themselves, or refer you to a periodontist, which is a specialist who treats gum tissues.

Dental Consultants Uncovering and Eliminating Bad Breath