Bad Breath - Causes and Cures from Absolute Dental

We know that sometimes our breath doesn't smell as fresh as we would like it to and  for some people, certain breath smells can be early indicators of other conditions. When people suffer from bad breath they often experience embarrassment and lack of confidence, which can be very debilitating.

In general, intraoral conditions like insufficient dental hygiene, periodontitis or tongue coating are considered to be the most important causes for halitosis in 85% of cases.  Plaque bacteria are constantly building up on all areas of the mouth including areas such as the tongue and the throat.

Some of the anaerobic bacteria in the mouth produce substances called volatile sulphur compounds. There are actually several VSC's and each one has a distinctive smell. 

Consequently, bad breath from different people does not always smell the same! 

However, distinct smells of the breath have long since been a reliable indicator for certain diseases and conditions. 

Familiar examples include:

• Diabetes - where ketosis causes an odour of overripe apples.
• Renal diseases frequently produce a fishy smell of amines and ammonia.   
• Dental or liver diseases have the cabbage-like odour of organic sulphides. 

Recently researchers at the University fo Virginia have revealed that breath tests can be a useful method to help the diagnosis of other conditions  such as asthma and people who suffer with cystic fibrosis have highly acidic breath.  

What can we do to help prevent halitosis?

At Absolute one of the first most important things we do is to listen to your concerns as you may have noticed a less pleasant smell coming from a specific area of your mouth or your other half may have commented that your breath is not as fresh as it was. Alongside this we do ask you to complete a form to help us to find out if there may be other elements in your general health which may be responsible for halitosis and may include some of the conditions noted above. 

If we establish that  these odours are plaque related, our challenge is to find out where from  and why. If we notice that decay may be present we need to refer you back to your dentist but also to find out why the decay happened in the first place and what we can do in the future to prevent a repeat occurrence. 

When the halitosis is caused by the build up of plaque we work really hard to remove any deposits from those areas  for you and help you to find the best way of removing plaque really thoroughly every day to help prevent the build up re-forming. Apart from really thorough cleaning, we have found  several really helpful products on the market now which help combat the effects of volatile sulphur compounds and these work by binding chemically to the tissues in the oral cavity to neutralise gases and eliminate bad breath.  

Always feel that you can talk to any of our team about bad breath, never feel embarrassed about this as there may be a very easy solution!!!