Bad breath is a common health problem in the society.Offenssive smell from the mouth may be due to various reasons.The main reason is the presence of anaerobic bacteria in the biofilm formed on the tongue .These bacteria degrades the proteins present in the food resulting in the production of some offenssive gases like hydrogen sulphide,skatol ect.

Bad odor from the mouth in the early morning is seen in almost all individuals.This can be controlled by maintaining oral hygiene.Even after cleaning the mouth some individuals may suffer from bad breath due to some problem in the mouth or in the nearby areas.Some general disease condition can also produce bad breath.Exact cause has to be identified and should be treated accordingly.Some common measures to cure or reduce bad breath are discussed here.

1) Oral hygiene:

Mouth should be kept clean every time to reduce the bacterial action.After food gargling with lukewarm water is very essential.Even after small food articles like snacks,sweets,buscuits cleaning with water is needed.Brushing should be done twice daily.It is said that early morning brushing is for beauty and bed time brushing is for good health.

2) Brushing techniques:

Normal brushing technique should be followed for better result.Many people brush vigorously causing damage to the gums.Brushing after every food and drink can damage the enamel .Bristles of the tooth brush should be smooth but hard enough to remove the food particles from the gaps.The direction of brushing is the most important thing.The upper teeth should be brushed in a downward direction and the lower in upward direction.This is applicable to both inner and outer surfaces.Next comes the crown of the teeth;here brushing is done in anterior and posterior direction keeping the brush in same direction.This applicable to both upper and lower set of teeth.

3) Tongue cleaning:

White or yellowish coating on the tongue can cause bad breath.This is more well marked in the morning and should be removed twice daily with the healp of a tongue cleaner. Tongue cleaner must be used gently without damaging the taste buds on the tongue.

4) Tooth pick:

Tooth pick is a small strip of wood or plastic with a pointed end.This is used to remove food particles lodged between the gaps.Very useful after eating meat and fish.Should be used gently to avoid damage to gums.

5) Gargling:

After every meal gargling with lukewarm water is useful.For better result little common salt is dissolved in the lukewarm water .Different types of mouth wash is available in the market in different trade names.Gargling with mouth wash can also reduce bad breath.

6) Food habits:

Protein containing food articles are known to produce bad breath. Example; meat, milk, fish, egg etc. If these food articles are taken proper cleaning is essential.Some food articles are known to produce particular smell which may be unpleasent for others. Raw onion is the best example.It is said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away and a raw onion a day keep every body away.Small food articles taken in between can also cause bad smell(nuts,fried items etc).Maintaining regularity in food timing is the most important thing.

7) Water intake:

Dryness in the mouth can make a favourable condition for the bacterial activity resulting in bad odor.saliva is needed to keep the mouth moist and to reduce the bacterial proliferation.Production of saliva is closely related with water balance of the body and hence sufficient quantity of water should be taken to maintain the production of saliva.

8) Mouth freshners:

Natural and artificial mouth freshners can reduce the intensity of bad breath to some extent.Spicy articles are commonly used for this purpose.Chewing spices like clove,cumin seed,cardomom,cinnamon,ginger ect are useful. All citrus fruits can reduce bad odor.Mouth freshners and chewing gums are available in the market.these products are also helpful ,but some may cause damage hence should be used with caution.

If the above things doesn’t work then what to do ?

Consider the following:-

1) Remove the cause:

Bad breath is common in some general and systemic diseases like diabetes,fevers,gastric disorders,liver diseases and ect.By removing or reducing the primary cause the bad breath will go automatically.

2) Modern medicine:

If bad breath is due to any infection suitable antibiotics,anti fungal or anti viral medicines will help.If it is due to any autoimmune or chronic inflamatory conditions steroids may also be used.Saliva producing tablets can also be used.

3) Dental cleaning:

Dental cleaning done by a dentist can remove the dental plaques and tartar. This can reduce the severity of bad breath.Visit your dentist atleast once in a year.

4) Filling of caries:

Since caries are one of the main cause for bad breath it should be filled by a dentist.Earlier silver amalgam was used ,nowadays it is replaced by synthetic materials.If the pulp cavity is affected by the caries root canal treatment can be done.

5) Tooth extraction:

If caries are deep with destruction of teeth with bad smell extraction is the better choice and a dental implant can be kept in the gap.

6) Tonsillectomy:

Patients with recurrent tonsillitis can have bad breath due to offenssive discharges and release of pasty materials from the crypts of tonsils.Such patients get great relief after tonsillectomy(removal of tonsils).

7) Psychological counselling:

Those who suffer from bad breath may be very much depressed and they be away from the public .This isolation hampers their daytoday activities.Such people should understand the fact that all humanbeings are having bad breath, but with slight differences in intensities.Mostly all people control it by taking personal care.Every human body has got it’s own smell,that may or may not be tolerable for others.They should be adviced to do all hygienic meashures to reduce the intensity of smell.Improving the quality of life by all possible means can also help.Moral support from friends and family members are needed for such people.

Some individuals visit the doctor for bad breath without any real problem.It is included under somatisation disorder.They usually complain about pain, breathlessness,abdominal discomfort,bad smell ect.proper diagnosis is needed to rule out any real causes.These patients should be managed with a psychological approach.

8) Homoeopathy:

In Homoeopathy medicines are selected on the basis of physical ,mental,emotional,and social aspects of the diseased person.Considering the whole aspects a constitutional homoeopathic medicine is selected and given in suitable potency and dose.By this all health related problems including bad breath will be solved.On the basis of coating on the tongue,type of smell,cause for bad breath,and other associated complaints a medicine can be given to get relief from bad breath.In the homoeopathic medical repertory by Dr Robin Murphy there are 140 homoeopathic drugs mentioned for bad breath.On the basis of signs and symptoms of the individual a suitable medicine is given.Commonly used drugs are arnica, antim crud, pulsatilla, sulphur, psorinum, nux vomica, ars alb, merc sol, kreosot, hekla lava, silicea, asafoitida, graphites, kali bich, acid nitric etc.

Homoeopathic mother tinctures like cinnamon Q,kreosot Q,zingiber Q,rhus glabra Q,menthol Q and ect can be used for gargling after diluting in water.

[POINTS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE IS FOR GENERAL AWARENESS. ANY BODY SUFFERING FROM BAD BREATH SHOULD CONSULT A DOCTOR.]

Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says: “The capacity of the alcohols for impairment of functions and the initiation and promotion of organic lesions in vital parts, is unsurpassed by any record in the whole range of medicine. The facts as to this are so indisputable, and so far granted by the profession, as to be no longer debatable . Changes in stomach and liver, in kidneys and lungs, in the blood-vessels to the minutest capillary, and in the blood to the smallest red and white blood disc disturbances of secretion, fibroid and fatty degenerations in almost every organ, impairment of muscular power, impressions so profound on both nervous systems as to be often toxic these, and such as these, are the oft manifested results. And these are not confined to those called intemperate.”

Professor Youmans says: “It is evident that, so far from being the conservator of health, alcohol is an active and powerful cause of disease, interfering, as it does, with the respiration, the circulation and the nutrition; now, is any other result possible?”

Dr. F.R. Lees says: “That alcohol should contribute to the fattening process under certain conditions, and produce in drinkers fatty degeneration of the blood, follows, as a matter of course, since, on the one hand, we have an agent that retains waste matter by lowering the nutritive and excretory functions, and on the other, a direct poisoner of the vesicles of the vital stream.”

Dr. Henry Monroe says: “There is no kind of tissue, whether healthy or morbid, that may not undergo fatty degeneration; and there is no organic disease so troublesome to the medical man, or so difficult of cure. If, by the aid of the microscope, we examine a very fine section of muscle taken from a person in good health, we find the muscles firm, elastic and of a bright red color, made up of parallel fibres, with beautiful crossings or striae; but, if we similarly examine the muscle of a man who leads an idle, sedentary life, and indulges in intoxicating drinks, we detect, at once, a pale, flabby, inelastic, oily appearance. Alcoholic narcotization appears to produce this peculiar conditions of the tissues more than any other agent with which we are acquainted. ‘Three-quarters of the chronic illness which the medical man has to treat,’ says Dr. Chambers, ‘are occasioned by this disease.’ The eminent French analytical chemist, Lecanu, found as much as one hundred and seventeen parts of fat in one thousand parts of a drunkard’s blood, the highest estimate of the quantity in health being eight and one-quarter parts, while the ordinary quantity is not more than two or three parts, so that the blood of the drunkard contains forty times in excess of the ordinary quantity.”

Dr. Hammond, who has written, in partial defense of alcohol as containing a food power, says: “When I say that it, of all other causes, is most prolific in exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves, I make a statement which my own experience shows to be correct.”

Another eminent physician says of alcohol: “It substitutes suppuration for growth. It helps time to produce the effects of age; and, in a word, is the genius of degeneration.”

Dr. Monroe, from whom “Alcohol, taken in small quantities, or largely diluted, as in the form of beer, causes the stomach gradually to lose its tone, and makes it dependent upon artificial stimulus. Atony, or want of tone of the stomach, gradually supervenes, and incurable disorder of health results. Should a dose of alcoholic drink be taken daily, the heart will very often become hypertrophied, or enlarged throughout. Indeed, it is painful to witness how many persons are actually laboring under disease of the heart, owing chiefly to the use of alcoholic liquors.”

Dr. T.K. Chambers, physician to the Prince of Wales, says: “Alcohol is really the most ungenerous diet there is. It impoverishes the blood, and there is no surer road to that degeneration of muscular fibre so much to be feared; and in heart disease it is more especially hurtful, by quickening the beat, causing capillary congestion and irregular circulation, and thus mechanically inducing dilatation.”

Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished surgeon, says: “Don’t take your daily wine under any pretext of its doing you good. Take it frankly as a luxury one which must be paid for, by some persons very lightly, by some at a high price, but always to be paid for. And, mostly, some loss of health, or of mental power, or of calmness of temper, or of judgment, is the price.”

Dr. Charles Jewett says: “The late Prof. Parks, of England, in his great work on Hygiene, has effectually disposed of the notion, long and very generally entertained, that alcohol is a valuable prophylactic where a bad climate, bad water and other conditions unfavorable to health, exist; and an unfortunate experiment with the article, in the Union army, on the banks of the Chickahominy, in the year 1863, proved conclusively that, instead of guarding the human constitution against the influence of agencies hostile to health, its use gives to them additional force. The medical history of the British army in India teaches the same lesson.”

But why present farther testimony? Is not the evidence complete? To the man who values good health; who would not lay the foundation for disease and suffering in his later years, we need not offer a single additional argument in favor of entire abstinence from alcoholic drinks. He will eschew them as poisons.