Dealing with bad breath can be frustrating and hard to treat. Knowing some practices to help improve your breath can make you more confident and prevent diseases. Oral health is about more than just brushing your teeth, other healthy habits can improve the look and smell of your teeth.
Here at Jenson Dental, we want to help everyone enjoy their smile. Improving bad breath is a great first step to having better oral health. You should feel like your best self when you are smiling.
1- Brush Your Teeth After Eating
Removing food particles from your mouth as soon as possible can help stop them from decaying in your mouth. Stuck food particles can often cause bad breath, so brushing sooner stops them from getting stuck and improves your breath.
You can keep a mini toothbrush at work or in your purse to have with you whenever you may need it.
2- Don’t Forget Your Tongue
When you are brushing your teeth morning and night, don’t forget to brush and scrub your tongue. Making sure to brush your tongue helps to remove bacteria that can cause bad breath. Bad breath can come from having a dry and unclean tongue more than anything else. While brushing your tongue may not make the problem completely go away, it can improve the look and feel of your mouth.
3- Adjust Your Diet
Onions and garlic are not your friends when it comes to fresh breath. These types of foods can make their way into your bloodstream and lungs, which makes it hard to get them to go away after brushing. If you are constantly struggling with bad breath changing up your diet and avoiding these foods before big events can keep your breath level.
If you don’t want to cut out foods like onion or garlic, at least avoid eating them a few days before a big event or being with friends.
4- Change Out Your Toothbrush
Changing out your toothbrush often can ensure that the bristles are doing their job and that harmful bacteria are not growing in your toothbrush. Old toothbrushes can harbor bad food and bacteria which means they can not clean your mouth properly.
Experts say that you should replace your toothbrush or electric toothbrush head every three to four months.
5- Swap Mints For Gum
Bacteria love to feed on sugar, which is common in breath mints. Bacteria use sugar molecules to make acid and this acid wears down your teeth faster. If you are worried about bad breath after a meal or before a presentation, opt for sugar-free gum instead.
While you chew gum, you produce more saliva which is a natural way to clean your mouth and remove bacteria from your teeth. Saliva helps to eliminate bad breath and slow tooth decay. When choosing gum, make sure that it is sugar-free, or else you will miss out on the benefits.
6- Avoid Dry Mouth
Since saliva is our body’s natural way to remove plaque and bacteria from our teeth, producing more of it can help keep our mouths healthy. If you have a dry mouth or feel that you don’t produce enough saliva, you can improve that by drinking more water.
Besides drinking water, you can chew sugar-free gum to stimulate the production of saliva, suck on sugar-free hard candy, and add a humidifier in your room to moisten the air while you sleep.
7- Schedule An Appointment With A Dentist
If you continue to struggle with bad breath, you should contact your doctor or dentist about what you are experiencing. They will ask you some questions about how long you have been experiencing bad breath, your health history, how often you visit the dentist, and more to determine your situation.
Regular dental cleanings can help with bad breath and your dentist may recommend more frequent visits to help with your problem. Other health issues may also be the undelying cause of your bad breath.
Jenson Dental
Every member of our office at Jenson Dental wants to help Brigham City and the surrounding areas have great smiles, fresh breath, and great oral health. Regular dental cleanings help to keep your teeth and gums healthy and prevent bad breath. Neglecting your oral health can be detrimental to your physical and emotional health as well. If you are looking for a fresher smile contact our office to schedule a service or cleaning today!