Taking care of your teeth and eating foods like pineapple and parsley may help get rid of bad breath that comes from your mouth. If you have bad breath because of a health problem, you might feel better if you fix the problem.
Some people think they have bad breath even though their breath is actually fine. Some people don’t know they have bad breath. It’s not always easy to even smell your own breath, let alone rate how bad it smells.
Ask someone you trust to give you their honest opinion. Do this during the day, not right after they’ve eaten a tuna sandwich with extra onions.
Why Do Poor Habits Cause Bad Breath?
Food bits can stay in your mouth if you don’t brush and floss every day. This can help bacteria grow between your teeth, around your gums, and on your tongue. This makes breath smell bad. Bad oral hygiene can also lead to gingivitis, which is inflammation of the gums. This can make your breath smell bad.
Bad breath can also be caused by germs and food particles that make smells if dentures are not cleaned properly.
Also, smoking or chewing tobacco can give you bad breath, stain your teeth, make it hard to taste food, and hurt your gums.
What Health Problems are Associated With Bad Breath?
If you have bad breath or a bad taste in your mouth that won’t go away, it could be a sign of gum disease. Plaque on the teeth is what causes gum disease. Toxicons are made by bacteria and hurt the gums. If you don’t treat gum disease, it can hurt your gums and teeth.
Bad breath can also be caused by oral problems like cavities, orthodontic devices that don’t fit right, and yeast infections in the mouth.
Dry mouth, which is also known as xerostomia, can also lead to bad smell. Saliva keeps the mouth wet, neutralizes the acids that plaque makes, and gets rid of the dead cells that build up on the tongue, gums, and cheeks. These cells break down and can give you bad breath if you don’t get rid of them.
Dry mouth can be caused by some medicines, problems with the salivary glands, or breathing through your mouth all the time. People who sleep with their mouths open actually have worse bad breath in the morning.
Bad breath can also be caused by a lot of other diseases and illnesses, such as
- Atopic dermatitis
- Infections of the lungs, like pneumonia or bronchitis
- Sinus illnesses that last a long time
- Postnasal drip
- Diabetes
- Long-term acid reflux
- Having problems with your gut
- Long-term lung infection
- Issues with the liver or kidneys
What Can Cause Bad Breath?
There are many things that can cause bad breath, and it may even be a sign that you are sick. Some of the possible reasons are:
- Bad oral hygiene: If you don’t brush and floss your teeth every day or clean your dentures, you can get bad smell.
- Some foods, like raw garlic and onion, are known to make you breath smell bad. This is because of the chemicals they give off when they break down in the stomach, which get to the lungs through the bloodstream.
- Cigarettes and cigarettes have a bad smell, and they can also damage your gums and make your breath smell bad.
- Infections in your mouth: Issues with your teeth, like cavities, can make you smell bad.
- Nasal or throat diseases: Sinusitis and rhinitis are two examples of nose and throat diseases that can cause bad breath and discharge from the nose. You might also have bad breath if you have tonsillitis, which is inflammation of the lips.
- Decreased salivation or dry mouth: If you have xerostomia (dry mouth), which can be caused by a number of things, such as certain medicines, getting older, smoking, drinking, or getting treatment for cancer, you may have decreased salivation. You can also get dry lips and bad breath if you sleep with your mouth wide open.
- Medications: Some medicines, like antihistamines (for allergy relief) and diuretics (for having to go to the bathroom a lot), can dry out your mouth and give you bad breath.
- GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, is when stomach acids keep coming back up into the throat.
- Diabetes
- A foreign body stuck in the nose, like a piece of food (this happens a lot to kids)
If your fears are correct and you do have bad breath, don’t stress. There are many things you can do at home to get rid of bad breath. Let’s look at some of them more closely.
Origins Of Bad Breath
Bacteria are always in the mouth, which is where bad smell usually starts. Food gets stuck in your teeth when you eat. Bacteria grow on these bits of food and give off sulfur chemicals that smell bad.
Bad breath is usually caused by not taking care of your teeth properly. There are bacteria in your mouth that keep growing if you don’t brush and floss often. Plaque, a thin film of bacteria, forms on your teeth. Plaque has a bad smell and can cause tooth loss, which is also smelly, if it isn’t brushed off at least twice a day.
While all foods can get stuck in your teeth, onions and garlic are more likely to give you bad smell. When you eat these foods, sulfur molecules are released into your bloodstream. It changes the way you breathe when the blood gets to your lungs.
More than 90% of cases of bad breath start in the mouth, but sometimes the problem comes from somewhere else in the body. It could be because of acid reflux, which makes you throw up some bad-tasting liquid. Some other reasons could be infections, problems with diabetes, or kidney failure. When you start a new diet, like the keto diet, your breath may smell funny.
How To Get Rid Of Bad Smell Between Teeth
1. Good Dental Hygiene
Studies show that not taking care of your teeth properly is the most common cause of bad breath. The best way to keep your mouth healthy is to stop plaque from building up. At least twice a day, in the morning and at night, you should brush your teeth for two minutes with fluoride toothpaste.
Some people think that they need to brush their teeth after every meal to keep cavities and bad breath away. If you floss at least once a day, germs won’t be able to grow on food stuck between your teeth.
Bacteria can also build up on the tongue and make it smell bad. A method called “tongue scraping” can help you get rid of this thin film. If you have a toothbrush or a tongue scraper, you should brush or scrape your tongue every day. Find out why it’s important to brush your tongue.
2. Parsley
People often use parsley to get rid of bad breath. It has a fresh smell and a lot of chlorophyll, which makes me think it can help get rid of smells. Research (not on people’s breath, though) has shown that parsley can successfully get rid of smelly sulfur compounds.
3. Pineapple Juice
A lot of people think that pineapple juice is the fastest and best way to get rid of bad breath. There is no scientific proof for this theory, but reports from people who have tried it say that it works.
Fresh pineapple juice or a pineapple slice chewed for one to two minutes should be drunk after every meal. Also, don’t forget to rinse your mouth out with water after eating or drinking fruit or fruit juice.
4. Water
According to a study, dry mouth is a common cause of bad breath. It’s very important to keep your mouth clean with saliva. Without it, germs grow quickly.
Because your mouth dries out while you sleep, your breath is usually worse in the morning.
Keep your body hydrated to avoid dry mouth. Throughout the day, drinking water (not caffeinated or sugary drinks) will help your mouth make more saliva. Try to drink eight glasses of water every day.
5. Yogurt
Lactobacillus is a healthy bacteria that is found in yogurt. These good bacteria can help fight off bad bacteria in your gut and other parts of your body.
According to a study, yogurt may also help get rid of bad breath. After six weeks of eating yogurt, 80% of the people who took part in the study had less bad breath. Probiotics found in yogurt can help lessen the severity of bad breath.
No-fat, plain yogurt should be eaten at least once a day to help fight bad breath.
6. Milk
A lot of people know that milk can help with bad breath. According to a study, drinking milk after eating garlic can make your “garlicky” breath a lot better.
For this method to work, drink a glass of full- or low-fat milk before or after a meal that has strong-smelling foods like onions and garlic.
7. Fennel Or Anise Seeds
Anise and fennel seeds have been used to freshen breath for a very long time. Raised fennel seeds are still used as “mukhwas,” or breath fresheners, in some parts of India to get rid of bad breath after dinner. The sweet flavor and pleasant smelling essential oils in them make your breath smell great.
You can eat fennel and anise seeds raw, roasted, or with sugar on top.
8. Orange
Oranges are good for you and your teeth. They also make a healthy treat.
A lot of people have bad breath because they don’t salivate enough to get rid of germs that cause bad breath. Vitamin C helps the body make more saliva, which can help get rid of bad breath. There is a lot of this vitamin in oranges.
9. Zinc
Zinc salts can help get rid of bad breath. You can find them in some mouthwashes (search PubMed for more information) and gum (search PubMed for more information). More sulfurous chemicals in your breath can be cleaned up by zinc. According to research, rinsing your mouth regularly with a zinc solution can help get rid of bad breath for at least 6 months.
For people with dry mouth, try a zinc chewing gum. Nutritional pills with zinc can also be bought at your local drug store or on Amazon.com.
10. Green Tea
If you want to get rid of bad breath at home, try green tea. According to research, green tea can briefly freshen your breath by killing germs and getting rid of bad smells. Since mint has the same affects, a cup of green mint tea might be a great way to freshen your breath.
Make two cups of tea before bed and put them in the fridge overnight. Put your cold tea in a bottle of water and bring it to work with you. Take it slowly as you go about your day.
11 . Apples
There was a study that said eating raw apples can really help get rid of garlic breath. There are natural chemicals in apples that reduce the smelly chemicals in garlic. These help people whose garlic breath lasts a long time because they neutralize the chemicals in the bloodstream instead of just cleaning the mouth.
12. Homemade Mouthwash With Baking Soda
Some research has found that baking soda, which is also called sodium bicarbonate, can kill germs in the mouth. According to research, toothpastes with a lot of baking soda work well to get rid of bad breath.
Mix 2 teaspoons of baking soda with 1 cup of warm water to make a mouthwash. Before you spit out the mouthwash, move it around in your mouth for at least 30 seconds.
13. Homemade Mouthwash With Vinegar
Acetic acid is a natural acid that is found in vinegar. Bacteria don’t like sour places to grow, so a mouthwash with vinegar may stop bacteria from growing.
White vinegar or apple cider vinegar should be mixed with 1 cup of water. Before you spit it out, gargle for at least 30 seconds.
14. Use A Tongue Scraper
It’s possible that brushing your teeth won’t get rid of all the food stuck in your mouth. A white color comes from food particles, germs, and dead skin cells that build up on the tongue.
It may also make your breath smell bad.
A tongue scraper is a quick and easy way to get rid of things stuck on your tongue. For long-lasting results, use it as part of your nightly oral hygiene practice.
15. Rinse Your Mouth
Food gets stuck in your gums and between your teeth. It stays in your mouth for hours if you wait until sleep to brush it off.
This could give you really bad breath, depending on what you ate.
You might want to rinse your mouth out after eating even if you don’t brush your teeth. A simple way to rinse your mouth is with warm water and salt.
It’s also possible for dry mouth to make your breath smell bad. For the smell to go away, you need to salivate. Rinsing with water can make your mouth make saliva, which kills germs.
16. Take Care of Your Gums
You can get an illness in the gums because they are soft and easily hurt. It’s easy for food to get stuck under the gums and be missed when you brush.
Make sure you care for your gums the same way you care for your teeth.
Brush your teeth gently in small circles along the gum line. Brushing your gums with big strokes can hurt them, so don’t do it.
It is very important to floss to keep your lips clean. To get rid of any food that’s still stuck between your teeth, floss every night.
17. Give Oil Pulling A Try
Today, most people don’t use this old way for maintaining good oral health. Some people say it does help get rid of the smell of bad breath, though.
Oil pulling is an Ayurvedic method in which you chew on oil for 10 to 20 minutes. Most people say that coconut oil cleans out your mouth of sulfur chemicals.
Some people also say it can help keep you from getting gums and cavities. If you have bad breath all the time, you might want to try to get rid of it.
18. Quit Smoking Cigarettes
Here’s another reason to stop smoking or eating tobacco. Cigarette smoking can lead to bad taste and a lot of other problems.
People who smoke have been known to:
- Tooth plaque and tartar buildup
- Salivary glands that are swollen
- A greater chance of getting gum disease
Of course, eating and smoking tobacco can also make your breath smell bad. If you stop smoking and eating, your breath will smell better.
Then, go to the dentist to find out how much damage these two habits have done.
See Your Dentist Regularly
See your dentist if you think something is wrong with your mouth. Also, you should get your teeth cleaned every so often at the dentist’s office.
A lot of people go to the dentist once a year. This is for a cleaning and checkup of your mouth once a year.
Some people may see them more often if they have special needs or teeth problems.
Regular trips to the dentist can help you keep your teeth fresh and keep you from getting sick. There are signs of gum disease, mouth cancer, and more that your dentist can find.