Articles on Medicine | Topics: medicine, medication, medications
by Sophie Jacobs
Medication Messes with your Breath – Which Ones are the Likely Offenders?
Probably the most common dental disorder is that of the dreaded halitosis. While this is simply a big word to describe bad breath, it is not so easy to get rid of it. Additionally, a lot of people who do suffer from this disorder are not even aware of it until someone else points it out to them. Do you know if you have bad breath? There are two easy tests to find out quickly:
Lick your wrist, or if you wear perfume on your wrist, go ahead and lick the back of your clean hand. Wait a few seconds for the saliva to dry and then sniff. What you smell is what other people smell when you speak.
Take a teaspoon, turn it over so that the hollow side points toward your tongue and then gently scrape the back of your tongue. If you withdraw the spoon and see a white coating, you know you just scraped off a bunch of bacteria. Put the scraping on the back of your hand or your wrist and sniff. What you smell now is what other people smell when you exhale.
If either sniff tests revealed objectionable odors, you may be fairly certain that you are suffering from halitosis. Your case may be temporary, permanent, mild, or strong, depending on the odor. Usually a good brushing, flossing, and tongue scraping will reduce the bacteria that cause the odors, and you will be good to go. In a few cases, however, even those measures do not work, or only work temporarily and for a short period of time. This may be the case if you are taking certain medications, which reduce the amount of saliva your mouth produces. A reduction in saliva will increase the amount of bacteria that accumulate, since they are no longer washed away effectively. Here is a list of medications that are amongst the most likely offenders known to mess with your breath, even if they do not specifically state so:
Most antidepressants
Many allergy, cold, flu, and sinus medications
| Historical Quote |
Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
| —James Madison (1751–1836) |
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Blood pressure medication
Diet pills
There are also over the counter substances that may loosely fit into the realm of medication, such as alcohol-based mouthwashes, sugar containing gums, and high protein body building shakes. It is hard to believe just how many substances that you least suspect may actually be culprits in causing you to experience halitosis!
Should you find yourself in the position of experiencing medication induced halitosis due to a dry mouth, there are several steps you can take to alleviate this problem. First and foremost you will need to make sure that you increase your water intake. This may be done by drinking your recommended eight glasses of water, and adding an additional three glasses to that. In between keeping yourself hydrated, you may also wish to chew some sugarless gum to keep your mouth producing saliva. After you eat, be sure to brush your teeth, and perhaps even floss. In the morning and evening, you will need to make sure to not only brush and floss, but also scrape the back of your tongue to do away with any accumulation of bacteria. If you use a mouthwash, be sure to check that it does not contain alcohol, since this substance will further dry out your mouth.
There is a school of thought that suggests that some medications, especially those who are based on garlic, cause the bad breath to occur from the lungs. The theory behind this thought process is the fact that digestion causes the nutrients and other substances to move via blood throughout the body. When the process if finished, the waste products are excreted, and one such process is through the air that is expelled from the lungs. This line of reasoning is not universally accepted and has a number of detractors who believe it to be an invalid theory.
Whatever the truth may hold, if your bad breath persists in spite of your most ardent brushing, flossing, scraping, and fluid intake, try gargling with water to which just a few drops of myrrh extract have been added. This may very well help you to rid yourself of the objectionable odors.
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