Halitosis or bad breath are both terms used to describe perceptibly objectionable odours exhaled in breathing.

Types Of Bad Breath

Transient bad breath is a very common impermanent condition caused by such things as oral dryness, stress, hunger, eating certain foods such as garlic, smoking and sub standard oral hygiene. Morning breath is a common example of this type of bad breath. Chronic bad breath is a more serious condition affecting around 1 in 4 people.

Combatting Bad Breath

Currently bad breath is not very well understood or even recognised as a treatable condition by most health professionals, so effective treatment is hard to find. There are an increasing number of halitosis clinics responding to this problem. There are also a number of products on the market designed to alleviate/cure. As with all general products, results change from effective to partly effective, to not effective at all.

Causes Of Bad Breath

Though the causes of breath odour are not entirely understood, most unpleasant odours are known to come from food trapped in the mouth which is processed by normal mouth flora. There are over 400 types of bacteria found in the average mouth. You can see why oral hygiene is so important after reading that bit