Chronic bad breath

If bad breath is interfering with you having bigger successes in either your work or social life, you always seem to have a bad taste in your mouth, others either avoid having contact with you or step away from you when you are talking, someone has either mentioned that you have bad breath or has offered you mints, and you have, at times, had a yellow or white film on your tongue, then there is a chance that you have chronic bad breath.

There are many different issues that may contribute to chronic bad breath and most fall into two categories: medical and dental.

From the medical side, bad breath may be caused by sinus infections, tonsilar infections, lung diseases, kidney diseases, liver diseases, several blood disorders, and diabetes, to name a few. In the dental category, a few factors that may contribute to chronic bad breath are extensive dental decay, gum disease, oral infections or abscesses, oral cancers, and allergy conditions. Other factors that contribute to bad breath may be a dry mouth (the cause of which may be stress or fasting); the eating of certain foods such as garlic, onions, fish, and cheese; smoking and drinking alcohol.

There are different ways in which to determine whether or not you suffer from chronic bad breath and they begin at home. While scientists have thought that smelling your own breath is more often than not difficult due to a lack of awareness because they are used to it, there have been many people who have been able to detect it in others because they, themselves, have it. Something that may impede self-analysis of the issue is because of preconceptions that center on how bad we think it should be.

The most effective, and often simplest, way to know whether or not a person has bad breath (chronic or otherwise) is to ask a friend or family member. Upon confirmation that there is a problem, the friend or family member can then help determine whether the odor comes from the mouth or nose.

Another method which can be utilized at home to determine whether or not bad breath is present is to take a disposable plastic spoon, lightly scrape the back of the tongue, and smell the drying residue.

There are home test kits that are available, as well, that test whether polyamines and sulfur compounds are present, but there are not many studies that show how well these kits are able to detect odor. Also, since breath odor varies in intensity throughout the day, multiple tests may have to be performed.

If bad breath is either chronic or recurring, and both medical and dental factors have been ruled out, specialized testing may be necessary. This could be performed through the use of any of the following: Halimeter, gas chromatography, a BANA test, and a $-galactosidase test.

Even though these instruments and examinations are used in breath clinics, a measurement of bad breath that is considered the gold standard is the actual sniffing and scoring of type and level of the odor based on a six point intensity scale and carried out by trained experts.