Bad Breath and the Problems You Face in
Dealing with it
A
recent study
showed that mouthwashes (even "antibacterial" brands), gums,
and breath mints merely mask the problem.
They only work
for a short time (an hour at most) because the bacteria
are still alive and well.
Obviously, mints, gum,
sprays, and mouthwashes are poor cover-ups for bad breath,
although people in American alone purchased over 1 billion
dollars worth last year.
Even if you are
using an antibacterial mouth-wash, the bacteria are
comfortable lurking in the safety under the coating of
the tongue. All of the mouthwashes currently
available over the counter add to the "compost pile" on
the tongue, instead of reducing it.
More importantly, the rinses or pastes that
have an antimicrobial effect work by changing the PH and/or
another biochemical component related to one facet of the oral
environment. Alcohol is probably the worst rinse ingredient
because of its drying effect on the oral tissues (actually,
this promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria) and the
possibility that long-term use may cause oral
cancers.
Stop wasting your money on mouthwash, gum, mints, and sprays. One pack
of mints a day (at 50 cents each) will cost you €182.00
every year, and most people spend a lot more than that.
That's OK if you like mints, but if you really want to
solve the problem at the root, you must do it another
way.
You see, the way we have
been dealing with bad breath and oral hygiene has not kept pace
with the times. In an age of instant global communication and
deep space exploration, you would expect that we would have
made much more progress in cleaning our mouths.
Think about it for a moment.
Why do
you use a toothbrush? If the same results could
be achieved with a mouthwash as a toothbrush,
then noone would bother with a brush, they would
just rinse and go. We all know that it would not
work, so why would we expect the tongue to be
clean after a "quick rinse" of chemical-laden
mouthwash.
Recent studies have shown up to 90%
of all cases of halitosis (bad breath) can be
contributed to the decomposing of the coating on
the tongue, and harmful bacteria that are not
removed by brushing, flossing, or gargling
alone.
Our "normal" hygiene routine doesnt work
against the bacteria on the tongue because we simply are
not properly cleaning our tongues.
Some dentists teach patients to brush their
tongues with their toothbrushes. A drawback of this is that a
moist toothbrush will continue to hold the bacteria. Unless you
are willing to throw out your toothbrush on a continuous basis,
we don't recommend this practice.
As plaque is to the teeth
and gums, coating is to the tongue. Brushing alone does not
solve the problem.
Although it is a step in the right direction, it
merely loosens
the coating. It does not remove
it.
Brushing the tongue does little more than mash the
bacteria and plaque deeper into the filliform, without
addressing the real problem at the posterior part of the
tongue
Now that you know the cause
of the problem, the next step is to know how to solve it,
rather than just treating the symptoms with mouthwash and
breath aids.
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