Do you feel the need to continuously use mouth wash throughout the day as well as brush your teeth? Does your bad breath keep you from going out and meeting new people? If you answered yes then you shouldn’t feel embarrassed by that as many people suffer from the same problem. The trick to it is to get the right diagnosis for the problem so that you can use the right treatment.
Some of the symptoms of bad breath are a sour or metallic taste in your mouth, post nasal drainage, a yellow or white film on your tongue, and a dry mouth. One common form of bad breath is called halitosis. A person suffering from this may experience many of the same symptoms above but also white nodules on the tonsils. What makes this form of bad breath so frustrating is that brushing and flossing will make no difference in fighting the smell that emits from your mouth. But what causes some of these symptoms?
As for the white or yellow film often found on the tongue, this is often caused by a build-up of bacteria and mucous from your nasal passages and can often be found most built up towards the back of your tongue. Furthermore, even when you attempt to remove as much of this film as you can, you may still experience a bad odor.
The reason behind the odor is the anaerobic bacteria, and if you are among those people that have larger than usual taste buds, then you are more likely to get such bacteria’s trapped on your tongue. What’s more, a heavy amount of this film can also mean that you have a major post nasal drainage issue that needs to be taken care of in order to fight the bacteria. To aid in this, there are two products that have been proven to work well; Breath-Ease XL saline powder and Hydro Pulse sinus irrigator.
The other common bad breath symptom that comes with halitosis is a dry mouth. Dry mouth is also known as xerostomia, and is responsible for many changes in your mouth. The number one change that you will see is a more concentrated bacterium.
What this does is cause to more easily evaporate into the air and thus spreading the smell easier and farther. Furthermore, any change like this in a mouth will affect your pH levels, and therefore become a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria as well as retention of more gunk that usually gets flushed out with your saliva.
What often causes this dry mouth environment is aging, not drinking enough water, using mouth washes that have a lot of alcohol in them, and many different types of medications can also cause you to have a dry mouth. These types of medications that dry out your mouth are allergy medications, anti-depressives, blood pressure medicine, and even diuretics. A common form of diuretic that we all ingest on a daily basis is coffee. However, there are causes of dry mouth that are not as common.
Such causes may be radiation treatment that is done to the head and neck area, diabetes and other auto-immune diseases, and it can be caused by a disease called Sjogrens Syndrome. Although many of these less common causes cannot be helped, there are ways for the more common causes to be treated.
One good way to help fight against dry mouth for many of these causes is to simply up your intake of water. The normal amount of water a person should consume is around eight 8oz. glasses a day so any extra amount will help. Furthermore, chewing sugarless gum can help as well as it helps increase your mouths production of saliva. However, if none of these remedies help then you should consult your doctor to get a more thorough treatment plan.