Self-Diagnosing Halitosis – How Do You Know if You Really Have It?

Articles on Halitosis | Topic: halitosis

by Zinaida Jimenez

Self-Diagnosing Halitosis – How Do You Know if You Really Have It?

Having halitosis, otherwise known as chronic bad breath, and not knowing it can be pretty embarrassing when you find out later on. Therefore, if you are concerned about the condition of your breath and would like to find out before going out in public, there are ways you can check your breath. One of the best ways is mentioned below as well as ways to combat halitosis.

The best way you can check the condition of your breath is to lick on the back of your clean wrist and then smell it. If you notice a slight odor then you know that you have halitosis, or bad breath. Sometimes this condition is chronic, and sometimes it is just a result of poor oral hygiene. Therefore, the action that you take to combat it may be different for you than for someone else. However, there are some general oral hygiene tips that everyone should follow to help ensure clean smelling breath.

First of all, you should remember to brush after every meal and floss at least once a day. Also, you should make sure that you brush your gums and your tongue as well. Then you should rinse your mouth out thoroughly with water, and then gargle with an alcohol free mouthwash.

If you practice the above steps to keeping your teeth and your mouth clean you will be assured to have less of a chance of having bad breath. That is because all the food particles from the inside of your mouth will be washed out. Furthermore, using alcohol free mouthwash will help continue the flowing of the protective natural juices (saliva) inside your mouth. Also, taking time to make sure that you take good care of your teeth and mouth will ensure fewer chances of the bacteria forming inside your mouth that causes halitosis.

Other steps you can take to avoid halitosis are to avoid strong food flavors such as garlic or onion, as well as avoiding spicy dishes such as chili or authentic Mexican tacos. This will be a challenge to do all the time, however, if you are on a first date, or you do not know the people you are with very well, you may want to consider saving your enjoyment of these spicy and strong foods to the comfort of your own home.

There are many other causes for halitosis besides just poor oral hygiene. One of those causes is diabetes. This would be surprising to most people, but it is true. The lowering of the immune system of a diabetes patient as well as the lowered blood circulation causes a person's gums to be infected. This infected gum disease leads to the condition of halitosis. This is one of the cases where halitosis is more chronic.

Historical Quote

It is not stressful circumstances, as such, that do harm to children. Rather, it is the quality of their interpersonal relationships and their transactions with the wider social and material environment that lead to behavioral, emotional, and physical health problems. If stress matters, it is in terms of how it influences the relationships that are important to the child.

—Felton Earls (20th century)

In the case of chronic halitosis, it is harder to remove the bad smell from your mouth no matter how strong of gum or mouthwash you use. Therefore, in this case you should get your mouth checked out as soon as you possibly can. Often times once gum disease is corrected the halitosis condition is usually alleviated. This is true for cases of gum disease that are not linked to diabetes as well.

If the halitosis problem still exists, or is a result of something else such as a medication you cannot do without you may be able to find other cures for halitosis. The National Medical society has a special web page that is a short questionnaire for people like you who are suffering from halitosis, otherwise known as chronic bad breath. This online questionnaire requests information about a patient's age, length of time of halitosis condition, and other existing conditions you may have has such as cough or toothache. This helps a patient find the root cause of the condition and helps that person find the correct medical treatment.

Another place that you can find more information out about halitosis cures is at your dentist or doctor's office. If it is a large office, they may have several pamphlets describing various dental conditions and how they affect your breath, as well as pamphlets on prescription and non-prescription treatments of this disorder. Herbal remedies can be found to treat halitosis as well and these are often found at natural food stores.

If you have a halitosis treatment in mind already and you need to know where to find it, you can search the Internet under the specific name for that treatment. This search method is useful for both prescription and non-prescription remedies. All you have to do is use your web browser and you will be sent to links in a matter of a few minutes. Just make sure that you trust the name of the brand that you are looking for. If you are not sure about the validity of a brand you can conduct some research on the validity of halitosis treatments found this way.

There are quite a bit if informative and free articles available to read online regarding halitosis as well. Some of the best readings can be found at About.com or Sinitinus.com. You can also sometimes access medical journal information that is sometimes available for free as well.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Self-Diagnosing Halitosis – How Do You Know if You Really Have It?" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by HealthExerciseSports.com.

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