Let’s be honest. We are all interested in having healthy teeth and gums, but we are even more interested in making sure that people don’t recoil from our breath when we talk to them.
Morning Breath: The truth is, the primary reason that most people brush their teeth in the first place is mainly to assure that their breath doesn’t smell bad – not because they are concerned with plaque control. That’s especially true in the morning. We are afraid of having ‘morning breath’ that stays with us all day long, and we’re afraid of that for some very good reasons.
Bad for Relationships of All Kinds: Having breath that is less than sweet is bad for personal relationships, it’s bad for business relationships, and frankly, it’s bad for one’s self-esteem. In fact, malodorous breath has been labeled as the most socially stigmatizing problem one can have. It’s also bad from a medical standpoint – because of what lies at the root of the problem, over 90% of the time.
Stuff Most People Don’t Know About Their Breath:
- Most ‘bad breath’ is really not your breath at all – it’s really the bacteria in your mouth ‘passing gas’ in your mouth after they eat.
- 90% of those passed gasses – called volatile sulfur compounds – come from bacteria that reside on your tongue.
- The white coating you sometimes find on your tongue is really a blanket of bacteria, all bunched together in what we call a biofilm. This biological blanket shields them from oxygen and gives these anaerobes an optimized reproductive environment.
- Therefore, the single, most effective thing you can do to assure good breath is to scrape your tongue of these gas producing bacteria. Said differently, if these gases are waste from bacteria, you need to take out the trash.
Another Myth Busted: The idea that mouthwash or mints can effectively address the problem of breath odor is akin to suggesting that body odor be effectively dealt with by dousing one’s self with perfume. That’s just not a good personal hygiene habit.
Mouthwash, mints, flavored toothpastes, and the like are largely designed to cover odors temporarily. But that just means that they are not dealing with the cause of the problem – which we now know to be the sulfur producing bacteria, mostly hiding on your tongue.
Don’t Be Fooled:The funny thing about all of this is that if people just knew more of the facts about their breath, and what makes it occasionally odiferous, they would embrace a much simpler, more effective solution (to 90% of the problem anyway). So, save your money. Don’t buy breath mints. Buy a tongue scraper!