Bad Breath: Watchyour Mouth!

People step back from you when you are talking to them, or avoid direct contact with you. You frequently have a bad taste in your mouth and someone offered you mints or chewing gum. And you wonder why.

Truth is, you may already be suffering from bad breath. Sadly, y-ou are the last one to know if you have halitosis (bad breath).You are so close to it but you are also used to it. Your breath is not just in front of you but you should also smell it through the passage from your mouth to your nose, even with

your mouth closed. However, our brain filters out the stimuli that we are used to.
So how to know if you have bad breath?

• Lick the back of your hand, leave the saliva to dry up for at least 5 minutes. Smell. If it is a foul odor you may have bad breath.

• Stick your tongue out as far as possible in front of a mirror. If you see that the back of your tongue is whitish, then it could be a sign that you may have bad breath.

• Run a dental floss between your back teeth. If you can smell a foul odor from a distance, it is an indication of the level of odor those people smell while talking to you.

• Use a cotton swab to wipe

the top surface of the tongue. Smell it and see if it has a yellowish stain. The yellowish stain is a proof that you have high concentration of volatile sulfuric compounds (VSC), an indicator of chronic bad breath.

• Get an empty, dry glass. Cover your mouth with the glass and breathe inside it. Again, smell.

    Lastly,and the most effective, ask your friends or someone you trust. It might be very embarrassing but it will help you make the necessary treatment on the soonest time possible.

How Does it smell?

• The mouth compound emits a certain odor that contributes to bad breath.
• Methyl Mercaptan (CH3SH) creates a fecal- like smell.
• Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) gives off a rotten egg- like smell.
• Dimethyl Sulphide (CH3SCH3) emits cabbage, sulphu, and gasoline.
• Skatole (3-methyl-1H-indole) responsible for mothballs and feces- like smells.
• Cadaverine C5H14N2 gives off corpse and urine like odors.
• Putrescine (NH2(CHH2)4NH2) for decaying flesh.
• Isovaleric acid the culprit for sweat, rancid-cheese and off milk odors.

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