Causes Of That Mouth Odour And The Solution

Do you or anybody around constantly fail the “sniff test,” in which you blow into your cupped hands to check for stinky breath? You’re not alone. Up to 80 million people have chronic bad breath.

Besides the obvious impact on your popularity, bad breath can be a sign of diseases and conditions, some serious. It might help to know the top 10 reasons why your breath smells bad and what you can do about it

Poor dental care

Yes, poor dental care is a leading cause of bad breath. When food is trapped between your teeth and under your gums, bacteria get busy breaking it down, leaving behind putrid gases that smell like rotten eggs or worse. The good news is that you can easily fix this type of bad breath by brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste twice a day and flossing regularly. While the brush is in there, don’t forget your tongue and cheeks; studies show that brushing them can reduce bacteria load.

You ate or drank something smelly

The foods we eat can easily cause bad breath. Coffee. Garlic. Fish. Eggs. Onions. Spicy food. A mint or stick of gum might mask the reek, but be warned: Odors from some of what you eat can stick around until the food works its way through your system — even if you brush. Try fighting back with other foods, such as lemons, parsley and crisp fruits and veggies such as apples or carrots that stimulate saliva production, which your mouth relies on to wash away impurities. Drinking water helps too!

You eat a lot of sweets

Dentists say sticky candies such as gummies and caramels are the worst offenders; if you must eat something sweet, they suggest (oh, joy!) plain chocolate. It has less sugar than many other candies and dissolves more quickly in the mouth.

You’re on a low-carb diet

Eating a lot of protein and few carbs forces your body into ketosis, when your system begins to burn fat cells for energy. The process creates waste products called ketones. Too many of those aren’t good, so your body has no choice but to make you a walking stank house, excreting ketones via your urine and your breath. Try drinking extra water to flush ketones out of your body. If you use breath mints, candies or gum, be sure they are sugar-free.

You’re a mouth breather

At night, saliva production is decreased, which is why many of us wake up with a rotten taste (and smell) in our mouths, even after diligent brushing and flossing. Mouth breathing or snoring, such as from sleep apnea, further dries out the mouth, making your breath even more foul.
The solution: Get to the bottom of your mouth breathing problems and fix them while drinking lots of water and keeping up your dental hygiene both morning and night.

Medication

Hundreds of commonly used medications can dry out your mouth, contributing to rank breath. Some of the most common culprits are meds that treat anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, pain and muscle tension. Check the drug’s list of side effects to see whether dry mouth is on it, and then talk to your doctor about switching to a medication that doesn’t reduce saliva.

Stuffy nose or allergies

Do you have chronic sinus infections? Respiratory illnesses? As your nose gets stuffy, you’re more likely to be breathing through your mouth, drying out tissues and reducing saliva flow. If you have allergies, the struggle to stop the constant drip-drip-drip with an antihistamine can lead to bad breath, as well. And all that postnasal drip can cause a stink by ending up stuck on the back of your tongue, which is incredibly hard to reach with a toothbrush. Dentists recommend scraping the back of your tongue with a specially designed scraper and rinsing with a mouthwash containing chlorine dioxide.

You smoke or chew tobacco (or other things)

If you’re a smoker, you probably have no idea how the odor of tobacco clings to your clothes and belongings and especially your breath. Breathing in hot fumes dulls your senses, diminishing your ability to smell and taste. Obviously, hot air will also dry the mouth. The loss of saliva, combined with the odor of tobacco, creates the infamous “smoker’s breath.”

Alcohol

We’re still talking about things that dry out the mouth. That includes alcohol. Not to mention wine contains sugar, as do many of the mixers used to create cocktails. Fight back by sucking on sugar-free candies or chewing sugar-free gum, as both stimulate saliva production. Don’t forget to drink water (it’s also good in preventing hangovers) and brush and floss as soon as you can.

An underlying medical condition

Bad breath can also be an early sign of an underlying disease that may not have outward symptoms. One of the signs of diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that affects mostly people with Type 1 diabetes, is fruity-smelling breath. It occurs because people with no to little insulin cannot metabolize ketone acids, allowing them to build up to toxic levels in the blood.

Sweet-smelling breath in a person with Type 1 diabetes should trigger prompt medical action. In rare cases, people with Type 2 diabetes can also develop the condition. A sign of liver disease is fetor hepaticus, a strong, sweet, musty odor on the breath. It occurs because a diseased liver cannot fully process limonene, a chemical found in citrus peels and some plants. Scientists are trying to develop a breath test based on the smell that can alert doctors to early stage cirrhosis of the liver, thus triggering treatment.