4 tricks for fresher breath

Bad breath? It sounds like a hellish scene from a Tolkien novel, and it’s not too far from the truth. What doctors call bad breath is experienced by everyone, and anyone who tells you their mouth smells like roses in the morning is just lying to you. But for one in four people, bad breath is a chronic, and unfortunately, social problem.

According to the American Dental Association, bad breath, also known as halitosis, is caused by bacteria in the mouth, along the gum line and on the tongue.

Bad breath can also be caused by certain foods such as onions and garlic, gum disease or plaque build-up, dry mouth, mouth breathing or dehydration which reduces the amount of saliva in the mouth and slows down the natural cleaning system of the oral cavity.

Bad breath is also caused by certain diseases such as diabetes, sinusitis or lung infections, bronchitis, as well as gastroesophageal reflux disease.

To freshen your breath, you should start brushing your teeth at least twice a day, as well as cleaning your tongue. This is very important, and regular tongue cleaning eliminates bad breath in 74-94 percent of people.

Besides oral hygiene, there are a few more tricks you can use to beat bad breath:

Eat yogurt

A study published in The Journal of Clinical Microbiology reports that the types of bacteria in the mouths of people with bad breath are different than those with healthy mouths.

One of the simplest offenders is the strep strain. Recent research shows that taking probiotics significantly reduces their effect.

Consuming yogurt is a good way to get probiotics in your food without having to take supplements.

Chew xylitol gum

A new study published in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations shows that chewing xylitol gum seriously reduces the amount of those same smelly strep bacteria.

According to the authors of other studies, chewing gum with xylitol can reduce the amount of visible plaque after four weeks and also make bad breath disappear because the gum affects streptococcal bacteria.

According to a third study, chewing any type of gum for 15 minutes can remove the compounds responsible for bad breath by an average of 17 percent.

Eat Parsley and Mint

Researchers from Ohio who tried to find out which foods remove the smell of garlic in the mouth, found a solution. It’s in eating parsley and mint leaves that significantly reduce the volatile compounds in garlic that are responsible for the bad smell, such as allyl methyl disulfide, diallyl disulfide, allyl tanne, and allyl methyl disulfide.

Scientists also found that apple and spinach slices were effective in reducing garlic-scented breath.

Drink green tea

Green tea is a powerful antimicrobial agent. Researchers from Canada have found that drinking green tea can completely eliminate bad breath.

Green tea greatly reduces the amount of volatile sulfur compounds, or VSCs, that come from bacteria in the mouth. They break down on the teeth and tongue. The polyphenols in green tea act as disinfectants in the mouth and deodorize it.