Why do People Keep Offering you Mints? Could it be that your Breath Stinks?

Bad breath (aka Halitosis) is very common, you may have it, and not even know. And believe it or not, it is not possible to smell your breath by cupping your hand, expelling into it then smelling. All you are in effect doing is smelling your hand. That is because humans are wired in a way that makes it impossible to smell your own breath - it is a process referred to as Acclimation. Acclimation is essential, because without this characteristic, our sense of smell would be permanently muffled by our own odors and scents.

There are plenty of ways to check your breath, though, and many of them can be performed at home. The most exact approach of bad breath checking is one that can't be done at home. You will need to visit a clinic that specializes in bad breath and oral problems and they will use a Halimeter to evaluate the level of sulfides that reside in your mouth.

Why Sulfides? Sulfides are questionably the root cause of halitosis. Everyone has the same bacteria in their mouth, and the bacteria that we have in our mouths need to be there. These bacteria assist humans in digestion by breaking down proteins found in specific foods, mucous or phlegm, blood, and in diseased or "broken-down" oral tissue. But for some people, the bacteria reacts in a different way with these proteins and the resultant factor is known as "volatile sulfur compounds" (VSC). These sulfur compounds, also known as Sulfides, produce the odor.

Following are a number of approaches for testing your breath at home. They are quite humble and in no way are they as effective as using the Halimeter, but they can give you a very good idea on just how bad your breath is.

The quickest, easiest and cheapest way to determine whether or not you have bad breath is to ask someone you absolutely trust. Tell them that you want a 100% bona fide answer, and get them to check your breath at sporadic times of the day, because there will be some changes.

The cotton gauze test involves you taking a piece of clean cotton gauze, wiping the top of your tongue with it, then checking it for smell and color. If you sense an odor then you're more foreseeable a bad breath sufferer. And, if you notice a yellow/brown decoloration on the gauze, you have undoubtedly got a heightened level of sulfides and are very likely to have extreme bad breath.

Licking the back of your hand sounds like a ludicrous method to check for bad breath, but it definitely gives you some indication of whether or not you are a sufferer. The process is simple - just lick the back of your hand and let it dry for 10-15 seconds - then smell it. If there is an odor present, then you've got bad breath. The answer for this is simple. When you lick the back of your hand, the sulfides travel from your tongue to your hand.

Dental floss is another cheap and easy way to check for bad breath. In fact, it not only gives you an indication of whether your breath smells, but it can give you a clear guideline on how to annihilate the smell too. That is, floss your teeth, paying careful attention to the rear teeth, then smell the floss - if you pull out chunks of food and they smell, then you'll know right away that your breath won't be too blissful, and you will also get a quick awareness of the fact that if you keep on flossing you might just get rid of the halitosis.

The ordinary tongue-coloration test doesn't specifically involve smelling anything, but it can give some very good insight into your halitosis problem. All you need to do is stand in front of a mirror and extend your tongue out as far as you comfortably can. What you are looking for is if there is any coloration, like white or yellow/brown, and if there is, then it is conceivable that you have a build-up of sulfides and as a result you'll have bad breath.

As you can see, there are numerous ways to check for bad breath without paying a visit to a bad breath clinic. But you do need to keep in mind the fact that these practices in no way compare to the performance of using a specialized tool like a Halimeter. Furthermore, Gum, Breath mints, breath strips and mouthwash are NOT the answer. They are just part of a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry which provides a very short 'mask' for the real cause. The real answer to solving the bad breath problem is to minimize the concentration of sulfides that exist in your mouth. Do this and people will stop offering you mints and breath strips, and they will possibly engage in longer conversations with you.

Article Source: http://www.healthandwellnesscentral.com

Don't be a victim of bad breath and find a halitosis treatment that works for you. Halitosis treatments such as general oral hygeine can eliminate the embarrassment and shame in social and business situations. Please visit www.badbreath-halitosis.info for more information.

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