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What are Some of the Myths about What Causes Halitosis?
At the Center for Breath Treatment near San Francisco California we specialize in the treatment of chronic halitosis and have been seeing patients for this condition since 1996 when we first opened our doors. Over that period of time a lot has been learned about the condition regarding its potential causes and also how to treat the problem. During that time many patients have visited our clinic and have presented us with many ideas on what they thought was causing their condition. Many of these myths have been repeated over and over through the years because they have been passed on by word of mouth, or they read it on the internet. Below are a number of common myths that we consistently hear form patients along with our accompanying comments.
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Only in extremely rare cases does this occur. Cleansing the intestines offers no benefits in treating halitosis.
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Only rarely does this occur and can be a manifestation of a serious disease. Conditions such as a pneumonia or lung cancer are examples.
Halitosis is a hereditary problem.
This is absolutely not true. Certain conditions that can contribute to a bad breath condition can be hereditary, but there is no halitosis gene that can be passed on to an offspring.
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This is not true. They only mask the problem for a few short minutes at best. Alcohol based mouthwashes in fact will worsen the problem because they dry out the mouth thus increasing the volatilization of breath odors.
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Products taken for food induced odors will have little effect on a chronic halitosis condition. There are, however, many food induced odors that can be offensive to others and there are ways to resolve those types of problems. The only product we have tested that has been shown to be effective against food induced odors such as garlic breath or onion breath is a product called BreathGemz®. This product has the ability to eliminate the odors during or even well after a person consumes the foods that will produce strong or offensive breath odors.
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This is also not true. Excessive brushing can dry one's mouth, thus increasing the halitosis problem. Excessive brushing can also damage the teeth and gums over time. It is very difficult to remove the specific odor causing bacteria with brushing and flossing alone, and most patients we see at our center tend to have very good oral hygiene.
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Foods such as onions, garlic, or cauliflower can induce certain odors but these are only transitory, and can be easily eliminated by avoiding that particular food. The odors they produce also are not of the "sulfur" type commonly seen in true halitosis conditions, and generally are not as offensive.
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There are highly effective treatments available for this problem. To learn more visit the Center for Breath Treatment at www.breathcure.com
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There is no scientific evidence to support the benefits of probiotics in the treatment of halitosis. The use and benefits of probiotics for treating a bad breath condition is very overstated and over simplified. For that reason we do not recommend the use of these products.
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This is absolutely false. H. Pylori is a common cause of peptic ulcers and when patients have been placed on antibiotics to eliminate the H. Pylori they sometimes find that their chronic halitosis condition improves. The reason for the improvement has nothing to do with the elimination or reduction of the H. Pylori. I may occur because the antibiotics temporarily reduce the amount of the anaerobic bacteria that are contributing to the halitosis condition. Once the antibiotic regimen is completed the bad breath always returns.
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Hydrogen peroxide has never been shown to be helpful in treating halitosis. It is considered a cytotoxic product (toxic to cells) that will damage the tissues in the mouth. An occasional use of the product will not cause any significant damage to the oral tissues but any prolonged or regular use of hydrogen peroxide will breakdown the tissues and cause ulcerations of the tissues. We recommend patients do not use it for oral purposes.
For more information about halitosis, its causes and ways to treat it visit the Center for Breath Treatment’s web site at www.breathcure.com.
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Why Do Some People Get Halitosis and Others Don’t?
At the Center for Breath Treatment near San Francisco California our area of specialty is the treatment of patients suffering with chronic halitosis, and we have been treating this condition since 1996. A frequently asked question by our patients is, “Why me, why do I have halitosis while so many others around me do not?” There is no single answer to that question. What we have found is that halitosis typically has a combination of causative factors to it and an individual without the problem may only have some of the factors necessary to produce a bad breath condition, or none of them at all. A bad breath condition often requires a combination of factors coming together at once to produce the ideal environment to produces a halitosis condition. We often hear patients complain that they know of a person who rarely brushes their teeth and has poor oral hygiene, yet that person does not have bad breath. At the same time another individual might have excellent oral hygiene and dental health but still experience chronic halitosis. How can this be? Well the answers lies in what causes halitosis. The bacteria that produce the odors of halitosis are not the same ones that typically reside in dental plaque, and that is why someone with poor oral hygiene may not necessarily have chronic bad breath. The bacteria are from a class of bacteria referred to as gram (-) anaerobic bacteria and they produce what are known as volatile sulfur compounds. These are the odors one smells from a halitosis condition. At the Center for Breath Treatment we actually measure the concentrations of these compounds that the anaerobic bacteria produce in our patients’ breath.
What exactly is halitosis and who typically gets this problem? Halitosis is a condition of bad breath that may be of a temporary or chronic nature. A chronic halitosis condition is simply a condition of bad breath that does not go away even after practicing normal and regular oral hygiene. The problem with having bad breath is it is often times impossible to realize you have the condition unless someone else informs you of the problem, and the problem is most people are not comfortable telling another person they have bad breath. As a result an individual can go through life for many years, or even decades, without realizing they have halitosis. The average person we see in our clinic has usually had their halitosis condition for 10-20 years prior to seeing us. There are a number of reasons for this lengthy period of time. One of them is simply that the individual simply has not been aware of the problem. On the other hand many people with the condition have been aware of its presence but have been unsuccessfully experimenting with numerous products they find in the store or on the internet that do not do nearly what they claim they do. They also do not know what is causing their condition so thy do not know what to treat. Most products found in the stores for treating bad breath are designed to cover up or mask odors and not treat the source of the problem. Those with alcohol, which are the majority of them, generally will worsen the condition because the high levels of alcohol found in those types of rinses will usually dry a person’s mouth quite rapidly and significantly. In our clinic we have tested patients before and after using these types of alcohol based mouth rinses and found that most people’s halitosis condition will increase 200-300% within minutes of rinsing their mouth with them.
Since 1996 we have treated over 10,000 patients in our clinic, and we have found that there is no age group or socioeconomic level that predominantly suffers from halitosis. In fact we have treated people of all ages form infants to the elderly. The elderly are slightly more prone to having a halitosis condition because they are often taking medications that can dry their mouths, and dry mouth conditions are a common contributor to halitosis. Despite this we do not see statistically more elderly patients than younger patients. The condition is spread out fairly evenly across the age spectrum. Some conditions or symptoms that might give a hint that one might have a halitosis condition are if one experiences a dry mouth condition, has significant post nasal drainage issues, frequently notices a white or yellowish coating on the tongue, has noticeably long taste buds on the top surface of the tongue, or frequently experiences a bad taste.
At our clinic many patients come to us already using many different techniques in their attempts to assess their breath odors, and most of these are techniques are derived from the internet or by word of mouth. Unfortunately many of these generally turn out to be very unreliable methods for assessing one’s own breath, and they often provide misinformation about what a person’s breath is really like. Probably the worst technique we see being used is to watch other people’s reactions or gestures. This is a highly subjective method to use and very prone to obtaining misinformation. People often times try to smell their own breath but this turns out to be a very unreliable method too. Although we can smell other people’s bad breath conditions we really cannot smell our own breath odors very accurately or consistently. In fact most people with severe halitosis cannot smell any malodors at all when they try to smell their breath. One of the best ways to obtain information about what your breath is really like is to ask someone close to you for their feedback. This however can prove to be a bit embarrassing to do. At The Center for Breath Treatment we can measure and quantify a person’s breath odors. This helpful for the patient because it lets them know the severity of their condition and it also allows us to show them their before and after results. All of this helps improve ones self confidence and self esteem. For further information about halitosis and how to treat it you can visit www.breathcure.com.
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What Causes a Chronic Bad Breath Condition?
At the Center for Breath Treatment near San Francisco California we have been successfully treating patients suffering with chronic halitosis since 1996. There are numerous potential causes of a halitosis condition, and they can come together in many combinations. Most patients we treat assume incorrectly that the more severe their halitosis condition is the more difficult it will be to eliminate it, but this is not necessarily true. From our experience at the Center for Breath Treatment we have found that the ease or difficulty in eliminating a halitosis condition has nothing to do with the severity of the bad breath. Some of the most severe cases of halitosis in which an individual’s bad breath was noticeable well over 10 feet away have often turned out to be quite easy to resolve, while at the same time some of the milder cases have proven to be much more difficult. There are some medical conditions that can produce a halitosis condition but these are generally serious and quite rare, and they have unique odors that quickly allow them to be differentiated from the typical halitosis odors. Some of these conditions are things such as liver failure, kidney failure, lung infections, uncontrolled diabetes, and certain blood diseases. Although these conditions have been known to occasionally cause a halitosis condition, these conditions are rarely associated with the problem and are not the first place we look when performing our diagnosis tests. One of the more common causes of halitosis we see in our clinic is a condition in which the patient experiences a dry mouth condition, otherwise known as xerostomia. Xerostomia is often a result of age and medications one might be taking. Anti-hypertensive drugs, various heart medications, and antidepressants are some of the medications that commonly produce a dry mouth condition. Some autoimmune conditions such as Sjögrens disease can produce a severe dry mouth condition, and chemotherapeutic agents and radiation treatment in the head and neck areas can do the same too. People with unusually long taste buds also tend to provide an ideal environment for the halitosis bacteria to thrive in and this can too be a contributing factor. Sinus conditions such as allergies or a deviated septum can produce post nasal drainage in an individual which in turn helps promote the growth of the anaerobic bacteria in the mouth and specifically on the tongue while also providing a food source for those same bacteria. Individuals with post nasal drainage don’t necessarily produce malodors from the nasal passages or sinuses, but the mucous drainage indirectly contributes to the production of malodors from the mouth. An acute or chronic sinus infection can also produce a malodor from either the mouth or directly from the sinuses, or both.
Generally halitosis is a result of an imbalance of various gram (-) anaerobic bacteria in the mouth. It is normal to have these bacteria but under normal conditions they should exist at relatively low levels in the mouth. Anaerobic bacteria can only survive in an oxygen free environment, and as a result they won’t be found in significant numbers in places such as your skin, lips, or on the teeth. People suffering from halitosis generally have excessive levels of these bacteria relative to the many other types of bacteria that reside in the oral cavity. There are numerous reasons this imbalance might occur, and some of them can occur due to things outside of the oral cavity itself. These same bacteria produce compounds that are referred to as Volatile Sulfur Compounds or VSCs for short, and are a normal metabolic waste product of these bacteria. The bacteria found in dental plaque are not of this type and do not produce these same odor causing compounds, and that is why someone with poor oral hygiene may not necessarily have chronic bad breath. At the Center for Breath Treatment we actually measure the concentrations of the VSCs in our patients’ breath. Everybody, whether they have halitosis or not will register a reading of these compounds in their breath when tested, but the breath only becomes offensive or even noticeable after the concentration of the VSCs reach a certain threshold level. Below that threshold level there is no malodor. Our goal at the Center for Breath Treatment is to bring those concentrations down to a level that is way below the threshold level necessary for a bad breath condition to occur, such that even during normal day to day breath fluctuations a person’s breath cannot reach a point in which it become offensive to others. By doing this a person can remain confident that their breath is fresh and not offensive to others. The problem with halitosis is that it is very hard to determine on your own what your breath is like.
Having a chronic halitosis condition often affects people’s lives in a very negative way. It often affects one’s social life, and it often has a negative impact on one’s self esteem. As a result of this the majority of the patients we see in our clinic, or who call us for help, also have accompanying psychological or emotional issues too. Essentially halitosis ends up having two components to it: The physical component, which is the biological aspect causing the condition of halitosis, and the psychological or emotional component which results from the physical problem of halitosis itself. When treating patients in our clinic we first and foremost treat the physical condition of halitosis, but we also assist our patients in overcoming the emotional or psychological issues surrounding their condition. For further information about halitosis and how to eliminate it you can visit The Center for Breath Treatment at www.breathcure.com.
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Disclaimer: BreathGemz® is a breath freshener and not a replacement for good oral hygiene. Bad breath may be a sign of a serious medical
condition, if you have persistent or chronic bad breath, consult your doctor or healthcare provider for treatment.
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