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What are the causes of bad breath?
The causes of bad breath are not direct. There are a lot of causes attributed to bad breath but by and large, we can pin point some causes. For anyone with bad breath, we would first look at the oral hygiene state of that person. For anyone who has not has a routine dental check for the mouth to be cleaned by a professional dental practitioner, there is a big likely hood of having bad breath. If a tooth or more has holes, when you eat, some of the food particles tend to go into those holes. When they get into the holes and stay there for a while, of course it begins to increase bad breath. People with upper respiratory tract infection or even lower respiratory tract infection like pneumonia, when they cough, the breath from the lungs is usually not fresh. Sometimes, our life-style has led us to have bad breath. Some people cannot do without spices. Some even take some of the spices raw due to the belief that it heals or could cure a particular ailment.
The causes of bad breath are not direct. There are a lot of causes attributed to bad breath but by and large, we can pin point some causes. For anyone with bad breath, we would first look at the oral hygiene state of that person. For anyone who has not has a routine dental check for the mouth to be cleaned by a professional dental practitioner, there is a big likely hood of having bad breath. If a tooth or more has holes, when you eat, some of the food particles tend to go into those holes. When they get into the holes and stay there for a while, of course it begins to increase bad breath. People with upper respiratory tract infection or even lower respiratory tract infection like pneumonia, when they cough, the breath from the lungs is usually not fresh. Sometimes, our life-style has led us to have bad breath. Some people cannot do without spices. Some even take some of the spices raw due to the belief that it heals or could cure a particular ailment.
For some of us, the spices in our meals are so much that even when we sweat, the sweat from our skin tends to emit odours from the spices. Some diseases of different types can lead to bad breath. An uncontrolled diabetic patient produces some gases called ketones. The smell of ketones is not so fantastic and you could say it’s a form of odour because when the person talks, you say the person has bad breath. The way we clean our mouth in this part of the world is also a contributing factor. We don’t really clean our mouth in the right way. Irrespective of what you use whether chewing stick or toothbrush, if you don’t use it in the appropriate manner, you will not get your mouth clean and it will lead to mouth odour. There are a lot of sediments that if they are not cleaned off from the previous meals, will be deposited in the mouth and the bacterial growth mixed with these deposits, can lead to bad breath.
So, what is this right way to clean the teeth?
Basically, you need to use toothpaste that contains fluoride. Most of the toothpastes in the market contain fluoride and if any toothpaste doesn’t fluoride, don’t use it. To make it easy for the Nigerian population, any good toothpaste must be endorsed by the Nigerian Dental Association if it doesn’t have that, I would not recommend it. Then regarding the act of brushing itself, we advocate that you must brush your teeth twice daily- first thing in the morning and the last thing before going to bed at night. It is also important to brush the teeth vertically and I emphasise that all the surfaces of the teeth should be brushed. Some people focus on the part of the teeth that they can easily access but it shouldn’t be. That is why there are specific types of brushes that are recommended for brushing that will get to the corners of the mouth. People should take extra pain to clean the inner surfaces and corners of the mouth as well as the upper and lower surfaces. In fact you have spaces behind the jaw that the brush can pass though for effective cleaning and that keeps you 70% away from bad breath.
Basically, you need to use toothpaste that contains fluoride. Most of the toothpastes in the market contain fluoride and if any toothpaste doesn’t fluoride, don’t use it. To make it easy for the Nigerian population, any good toothpaste must be endorsed by the Nigerian Dental Association if it doesn’t have that, I would not recommend it. Then regarding the act of brushing itself, we advocate that you must brush your teeth twice daily- first thing in the morning and the last thing before going to bed at night. It is also important to brush the teeth vertically and I emphasise that all the surfaces of the teeth should be brushed. Some people focus on the part of the teeth that they can easily access but it shouldn’t be. That is why there are specific types of brushes that are recommended for brushing that will get to the corners of the mouth. People should take extra pain to clean the inner surfaces and corners of the mouth as well as the upper and lower surfaces. In fact you have spaces behind the jaw that the brush can pass though for effective cleaning and that keeps you 70% away from bad breath.
Let’s talk more about how life-style affects our breath.
Like I said earlier, our life-style is quite complex and mostly, is something part of you and can also be a matter of upbringing. It is important for every individual to take extra effort to imbibe a very good life-style. Primarily, the mouth is a gateway to the body and that is a strong pointer to major diseases of the body. Most systemic diseases tend to manifest early enough through our oral cavity and when you visit dental clinics at such times, it may not even be the patient’s initial complaint but it would be discovered in the process of check-up. Professional dentists call such discoveries Accidental Findings or Routine Findings and the findings will then be taken up by professionals and treated. These days the foods we eat are filled with refined sugars. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t eat foods with refined sugars, but it should not be something you eat all day.
Like I said earlier, our life-style is quite complex and mostly, is something part of you and can also be a matter of upbringing. It is important for every individual to take extra effort to imbibe a very good life-style. Primarily, the mouth is a gateway to the body and that is a strong pointer to major diseases of the body. Most systemic diseases tend to manifest early enough through our oral cavity and when you visit dental clinics at such times, it may not even be the patient’s initial complaint but it would be discovered in the process of check-up. Professional dentists call such discoveries Accidental Findings or Routine Findings and the findings will then be taken up by professionals and treated. These days the foods we eat are filled with refined sugars. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t eat foods with refined sugars, but it should not be something you eat all day.
Refined sugars should be minimised and meals should be balanced, containing all classes of food like protein, carbohydrates and fats. Some people fry their foods so deeply that until the meat is so crunchy, they wouldn’t enjoy it. Other people indulge themselves once in a while but on a general note, we should keep our meat, fish, boiled. Don’t live on fatty foods instead take more of grains, legumes, vegetables and even if you feel like taking something, it’s not good to go for sugary foods, rather, take fruits and nuts, they are healthy. If you can imbibe this sort of life-style, I can assure you of a clean slate of health. I did a medical check up recently and because I hardly eat fatty foods, I was told that my lipid (fat) profile was fantastic, in fact that it was a bit low and I should increase it. That shows one has to be really careful not to take in fat that will eventually cause one disease or the other in your body. So, routine dental check up has to be part of an individual’s life-style. Many are aware of routine medical check up but not the routine dental check up; people don’t have to wait until there’s a complaint in the body before visiting the dentist at least twice a year. As a result, you can maintain your teeth for a lifetime.
What more can people to do get fresh breath?
Some people with bad breath don’t usually agree that they have it but when they speak, you can perceive the odour. When you wake up from sleep, it is normal for everyone to have a form of stale breath which goes away after cleaning up. At the least, using clean water as mouthwash can work and the bad breath will disappear. For those that have real bad breath, they cannot solve it by themselves, they need to get professional help and they’ll get the basic treatments but if the bad breath persists, we go to the advanced stage. The issue then will not be about clearing the bad breath but we must get to the root cause of it. When the root cause is sorted, then the bad breath will eventually disappear. Take for example, the case of a patient with pneumonia, the breath that comes out from the affected lungs can be unpleasant and until the underlying cause is treated.
Some people with bad breath don’t usually agree that they have it but when they speak, you can perceive the odour. When you wake up from sleep, it is normal for everyone to have a form of stale breath which goes away after cleaning up. At the least, using clean water as mouthwash can work and the bad breath will disappear. For those that have real bad breath, they cannot solve it by themselves, they need to get professional help and they’ll get the basic treatments but if the bad breath persists, we go to the advanced stage. The issue then will not be about clearing the bad breath but we must get to the root cause of it. When the root cause is sorted, then the bad breath will eventually disappear. Take for example, the case of a patient with pneumonia, the breath that comes out from the affected lungs can be unpleasant and until the underlying cause is treated.
As a dental surgeon, has there been any particular case of halitosis that you haven’t been able to cure?
I will admit that I have one or two cases like that but my perception is that after undergoing all the treatment stages, these people don’t even have bad breath. In those cases, it is a psychological issue and for such patients, we place them on antipsychotic drugs. It’s not like they have mental problems, no! But it really bothers them to the point that you can imagine someone say “let them even remove all these 32 teeth in my mouth so I will not have bad breath”.
I will admit that I have one or two cases like that but my perception is that after undergoing all the treatment stages, these people don’t even have bad breath. In those cases, it is a psychological issue and for such patients, we place them on antipsychotic drugs. It’s not like they have mental problems, no! But it really bothers them to the point that you can imagine someone say “let them even remove all these 32 teeth in my mouth so I will not have bad breath”.
When I place such a one on medications at a very minimal dosage, the person then becomes full of life and feels happy and may even want to continue on that drug for life and at that point, I stop the patient because it becomes very clear that it’s more of a psychological issue than the reality of the individual. I have had a situation where I would remove my face mask and ask the person to breathe in my face with my nose close to the patient’s mouth but I perceive nothing more than the normal heat that comes from a person’s breath yet the person told me there was bad breath. In such cases, they fizzle out when there’s nothing more we can do for them. They are called difficult patients, but by and large you still have to cope with them, reassure them, and re-educate them.
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