Causes Of Bad Breath – Tonsil Stones

Bad breath is usually regarded as a cosmetic problem, however, the causes of bad breath can often be an underlying more serious issues. This places bad breath in a strange place on the medical research and treatment matrix.

Regardless of if you just woke up or if you are working on your golf release bad breath is embarassing.

Been a cosmetic issue means that, quite rightly, there has not been as much research into cures for bad breath as there would have been if it was a life threatening medical condition.

Even though bad breath has never been the focus of huge medical research investment it is usually something that can be easily cured, treated and managed.

Your first clue in treating bad breath would be to consider how you first noticed the problem and its frequency. If you have just had bad breath as a one off while hungover or after a change of diet on holiday then it probably isn’t something you need to worry about, however, if its more frequent then it is a problem.

The best approach to treating bad breath tackles the problem from two sides. The first and most immediate thing most people want to do is to mask the smell instantly. This can be done with a number of tricks, breath mints, mouth wash, a breath freshening spay or even just the simple act of cleaning your teeth will relieve most bad breath almost instantly but if there is an untreated underlying cause then this will only be a temporary solution and the smell will slowly return. It may only take a few hours before your breath has returned to its previous stale state.

The underlying causes of bad breath vary:

• What you eat
• How much you drink
• Smoking
• Drinking alcohol
• Oral hygiene
• How long you sleep for
• Allergic reactions
• The amount of sugar in your diet
• Serious medical conditions
• Tonsil stones

It is beyond the scope of my post for me to explain how to tackle every single underlying cause of bad breath but if you are suffering then the following general advice should go a long way towards reducing or treating the problem:

• Brush your teeth twice a day
• Make sure you floss once a day before bed, don’t skip a day, by making sure you do this daily you will stop your gums producing odour, you need to build this up, just doing it once if you already have unhealthy gums will not be enough to permanently stop the odour
• Visit your dentist twice a year if you have bad breath otherwise once a year is likely enough
• Eat a balanced stable diet
• Calculate how much water you need to drink for your weight and level of activity and make sure you hit this target each day
• Look for and deal with any tonsil stones/flush or clean your tonsils

It is important to realise that bad breath rarely comes from your mouth, it may be possible if you have just eaten something particularly creative, however, the mouth and human body have a particularly effective mechanism of eliminating this kind of smell. Usually the smell of bad breath comes from one of two place:

• The tonsils (95% of the time) Deep within the stomach (5% of the time)

I will publish a post within the next few days explaining how you can clean your tonsils an flush them of the bacteria and debris that are the main triggers for bad breath.