Stanky Breath? A dentist recommends at home remedies
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You or a loved one has that stanky breaf? You don’t want you or your loved one to have that stanky breaf? I feel that. Let’s talk about it.
Causes of That Stanky Breaf:
1. Volatile Sulfur Compounds
The majority of bad breath (about 85% of cases) is caused by stuff going on directly inside your mouth.
You need to clean your teeth, gums, and tongue regularly. We all have bacteria in our mouths. The bacteria is always there. We put food and drinks in our mouths. The bacteria munch on the foods right along with us. You know how your poo poo doesn’t smell great? When you leave food in your mouth for bacteria to munch on, they go poo poo in your mouth after they are done eating. Bacteria are very inconsiderate, much like a newborn baby. Except they don’t have any diapers. Your mouth is their diaper. Some of the bacterial poo poo includes volatile sulfur compounds. Volatile sulfur compounds smell like rotten eggs.
Solution? Learn how to brush and floss well. Once you know how to brush and floss well, make sure you do it each day. Set up reminders in your bathroom. Make it a habit. If you brush and floss the right way, you remove bacterial build-ups from your teeth and gums. Bacteria are better at breaking down food when they build a colony to work together on your teeth. Brushing and flossing break up the colony so it can’t wreck your mouth.
Although we do NOT have hard evidence that it is effective, if you want to go the extra mile in fighting chronic bad breath, you can also use a tongue scraper. Most toothbrushes have a rougher/ridged surface on the backside of the brush head. You can use that to scrape your tongue, or you can buy a tongue scraper. You want to clean the part of your tongue furthest toward your throat. That’s where the nastiest bacteria like to chill out. Stick your tongue as far forward as you can when you scrape it to help avoid gagging.
2. Dry Mouth
We depend on saliva to help wash food away after we finish eating. If you struggle with dry mouth, that means food sticks around longer for bacteria to munch on. It also means that the bacterial volatile sulfur compound poo poo sticks around for longer. I wrote an article and made a video all about dry mouth and how to treat it. If you struggle with dry mouth, read this and watch this.
3. Smoking
You already know smoking causes bad breath. I’m not here to lecture you about it. Not trying to stigmatize anyone. If you do want to be free of nicotine, I would strongly suggest you read this book. A book? Yes, a book. You can also start with this article and this video. You got this. Do it.
4. Tonsil Stones
Tonsil stones can also be a source of stankiness from further back in the mouth, aka the throat. If tonsil stones are a frequent problem for you, you’re going to want to see an otorhinolaryngologist. A who-iddy-whatty? An otorhinolaryngologist. An ENT. No, not a talking tree from the Lord of the Rings. Although, that would be badass, and I encourage you to continue letting your imagination run wild in that fashion. Who wouldn’t want a talking tree to be their doctor? I feel like people might actually listen to doctors’ advice if they heard it from a talking tree. Think of all the stuff Moses accomplished, and he was only talking to a bush. One that was on fire at that. Surely a not-on-fire talking tree could convince you to stop giving in to the sugar propaganda?
Anyway, an ENT is an ear, nose, and throat doctor. Otorhinolaryngologist is one of the coolest words available in the English language. It sounds like something J.R.R. Tolkien could have named an elf in LOTR. Maybe not. Whatever. I’d be afraid of that elf. Probably would be sneaky and try to stab your ears and pull your nose down into your throat or something. An ENT is who you should see if you have a chronic issue with tonsil stones contributing to bad breath.
An ENT will only perform a tonsillectomy or perhaps use a laser to recontour your tonsils if this is a recurrent issue you have failed to control with other oral hygiene measures discussed in this article.
To try to remove tonsil stones yourself at home, you can gargle with warm salt water, use a cotton swab gently, or try using a water flosser.
5. Post-Nasal Drip/Sinus Infection
If you have a sinus infection and that gunky funk mucus junk is drip dropping down into your throat and getting on your tongue, that can also cause the stinky stonk breaf. Clear up the sinus infection, and the bad breath should resolve if that is the cause.
6. Systemic Problems Elsewhere in the Body
If you have an odor issue in your mouth cavern even though you brush, floss, and tongue scrape like a champ, AND you don’t have issues with dry mouth, AND you don’t smoke, AND you don’t have a problem with tonsil stones, AND you don’t have a sinus infection, THEN you may have to look at the possibility you have an issue somewhere else in your body.
Problems nowhere near the mouth that can cause a stinky mouth:
Diabetes — Your breath smells like fruit.¹
You’re an alcoholic — Also, fruity breath (and not just because you slam Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Angry Orchard Hard Cider)
Obstructed Bowels — Breaf that smell like genuine poo.
Kidney Problems — Fish stank stank.
There are some others, too, if you want to read this more professional publication. Basically, if you take excellent care of your oral, nasal, and throat hygiene and something still stinks in there, not a bad idea to see a doctor about that. There may be trouble brewing somewhere else.
Cures for the Stanky?
Mouthwash
Mouthwash will not cure bad breath. It is just a cover-up operation. Same with mints and gums. Sure, they can help, but you’re not attacking the underlying cause. If you want to learn everything there is to know about mouthwash, watch this video and read this article. You can also check the “chemical reduction” section in this article and the “oral malodor” section here under the “clinical considerations” heading. Chlorhexidine is a prescription mouthwash dentists will use for various situations, but it typically isn’t prescribed specifically just for bad breath. Chlorhexidine can stain your teeth if used improperly. You can’t eat or drink anything for about an hour after rinsing with chlorhexidine, unless you want your teeth to turn green. Few people desire this, as far as I know.
Probiotics?
Prebiotics and probiotics are all the rage these days. Why can’t us dern humans and bacteria just get along with each other? There may be some early evidence that dental-specific probiotic strains of bacteria may be able to improve your bad breath. Listen up to your friendly neighborhood hygienist.
In my opinion, probiotics are not the whole solution. You need to stop looking for ways to escape brushing and flossing. There is not a pill that alleviates the need for you to shower. You have to clean your body. Your mouth is part of your body. Wipe your butt. Floss your teeth. A water flosser is not as effective as a bidet, but it’s better than nothing. That being said, I’m all for using multiple approaches to solve a problem. Different methods will work better depending on each patient’s unique situation. You, you, you, you got options. Flossing, flossing, flossing is the top one. No, you cannot get some of my love. Ok, you can have some of it. 😘
What about Morning Breath?
Why is your breath so stank stank in the morning when you wake up? Usually, that has to do with dry mouth. We typically don’t produce as much saliva when we are sleeping at night. If your mouth is dry, that means food and bacteria get to mingle for longer and produce more stinky stonky volatile sulfur compounds, which also stick around longer instead of being washed away by saliva.
Solution? Make sure you brush and floss your teeth and tongue really well at night before you go to sleep (I realize that sentence structure was ambiguous: You do not need to floss your tongue.).
Watch this video on flossing. Yes, you need to floss. Brushing is not enough. Gum disease is the biggest contributor to that stank stank. All kinds of nasty bacteria hang out underneath your gum tissue doing all sorts of unnatural, ungodly acts we shall not speak of. The creations birthed by these fornications underneath your gums would make Victor Frankenstein blush. Watch the video. Learn how to floss the right way. “Do it.” — The Winged Goddess of Victory
Watch this video on dry mouth.
Are all of these things really related to each other? Yup. Just check out my YouTube channel to learn more.
The beautiful thing is that all the stuff you do to protect your teeth and gums will also make your breath fresh. Fresh breath. Healthy smile. No pain. I know I’m a dentist and you hate me, but at least you don’t have to sit in a dental chair while I talk to you when you’re on my YouTube channel. You can sit on your toilet. Learn about bacteria poo pooing in your mouth while you poo poo in the toilet’s mouth. Everything comes full circle. The scales of justice balance, and all is well in the world again.
Summary
You know how the rest of your body gets smelly and gross if you don’t take showers? Why would you think your mouth would be any different? If your feet stink, you clip your toenails, dig out that funky fungus with that Swiss army knife toenail clipper claw thing,² file down your bunions, and scrub and wash those stinky gross-ass hobbit pads. Your teethy get all funky dunks just from being inside shoes. You don’t even feed your feet anything. So, like, duh, and of course, you need to clean your mouth out if you don’t want it to reek hardcore.
Bacteria in our mouth breaks food down into volatile sulfur compounds = bad breath.
Brushing and flossing to remove food particles and bacteria from the teeth and gums stops the production of more volatile sulfur compounds. Less smelly gunk.
The back of your tongue can get coated with bacteria more likely to cause bad breath. Brush your tongue and use a tongue scraper, but realize this is NOT as important as brushing and flossing. The backside of many toothbrushes has a built-in rougher rubber tongue scraper tool as well.
Dry mouth also makes bad breath worse. Saliva helps us naturally clean away food. If we don’t have saliva, then food, and the volatile sulfur compounds that are the breakdown products of food, stick around longer. Check labels of medications you’re taking to see if one of the side effects is dry mouth. Always consult with your physician about what could be done to improve your health to a point where you wouldn’t need as many medications. Don’t ever stop or change medications without consulting with your physician.
If you smoke, read this book.
If you clean your mouth really well by brushing and flossing and still have bad breath, consider other potential causes like tonsil stones, nasal sinus infections, or systemic health issues such as diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, or kidney function issues (basically, see your family physician).
If it has been a really long time since you have seen a dentist and you’re unsure of what kind of shape your teeth and gums are in, you should also see a dentist before giving up and resigning yourself to forever stankiness of the mouth. If you have deep cavities or significant gum disease, you’ll need a dentist's help to get those issues fixed. Brushing and flossing alone won’t do it. The good news is that once the dentist and hygienist get you back to a state of health, if you start brushing and flossing well each day and make sure you have a dental healthy diet, then you’ll likely never need our services again. You can waltz through life with a beautiful, healthy, wealthy, not so smelly smile on your big dumb face.³ Now, doesn’t that sound wonderful?
Hope this was helpful.
Thanks for reading.
Footnotes:
¹ If you vape, it is more likely that that is the reason your breath smells like fruit. Fruit is not cute. Don’t vape. Is that a terrible slogan? I don’t care. Fruit is not cute. Vaping is…ok, that was way too aggressive of a thing to rhyme with vaping. Also inaccurate. Look, I’m not trying to get canceled here. I’m sorry. A little. To be honest, I’m not entirely sorry. This is genuinely fun for me. I’m a bit impish. I can’t help it. If you’re annoyed by my impishness, I’m sorry you’re peevish, but the universe has just birthed two different creatures when it comes to you and me. We have to embrace that, ya know? Celebrate differences. Tolerance. All that jazz. Do you like jazz? I like jazz. I used to listen to jazz while studying in college. If your mouth smells like fruit, you may have diabetes, you may be an alcoholic, or you may need to stop vaping. That’s all I’m trying to say. Also, shout out to all the people who googled “peevish.” It sounds like it should mean the same as pervert or something, but it doesn’t. I wasn’t calling you a pervert.
² I think you all know what I’m talking about. Then again, I’ve had the same toenail clippers since I was a child, so maybe they’ve updated the technology by now. I should probably look into getting new toenail clippers. You should switch out your toothbrush about every three months. I’m not sure what the lifespan on toenail clippers is, but it’s probably not 22 years.
³ I’m sorry for telling you that you have a dumb face. I’m sure your face is perfectly not dumb. I just get exasperated by life sometimes and need to vent. It’s not you, it’s me. I lash out at random strangers online because I’m insecure. Please forgive me. JK. I don’t care what you think. You can hate me if you want to. I took this Tony Robbins course all about standing up for myself and stuff and I’m tired of people using me as a punching bag. I’m allowed to think some people have dumb faces. Some of us have to have dumb faces, don’t we? We can’t all have not-dumb faces. There’s a bell-curve for everything. I’m a jerk face because I made an observation and stuck to my guns like a real-life opinionated cowboy man? What’s wrong with that? Huh? What’s wrong with me? Answer me!