Battling Bad Breath: 3 Simple Yet Little-Known Tactics

Bad breath isn't just annoying--it can have devastating effects on your self-esteem and social interactions. Many people choose to mask this problem with things like chewing gum and mouthwash. If you are looking for more permanent solutions for your bad breath, read on. This article will offer three easy tactics for the long term.

Increase your tea consumption.

Research is increasingly showing what a miracle beverage tea is. It can help to lower the risk of afflictions such as cancer, heart attacks, and even Parkinson's disease. Therefore, it is easy to overlook the fact that tea can do wonders for combatting bad breath as well.

It is believed that the breath freshening power of tea is linked to its high concentration of polyphenols, a specific group of antioxidants. These work to directly impede the formation of bad-breath compounds containing sulphur. Not only that, but regular tea drinking can reduce mouth bacteria--another contributing factor to bad breath--by up to 30 percent.

Always stay hydrated.

If you're like most people, you've probably never stopped to consider the important part saliva plays in your oral health. Yet that lowly old spit represents your body's first line of defense against nasty buildup in your mouth. You see, not only does saliva work to neutralize tooth-destroying acids, but it also helps to wash away excess food particles.

For those reasons, bad breath is a natural consequence when your mouths gets too dry to produce saliva. Making a conscious effort to stay hydrated, therefore, can directly reduce the severity of your bad breath. Drinking water, chewing gum, and running a humidifier at night are all ways to help keep your mouth moist and happy.

Make apples your snack food of choice.

Remember those polyphenols that make tea such a potent breath freshener? Well, the good news is that apples have them, too. But the breath-cleansing power of apples also has to do with the presence of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a potent weapon in the fight against gum diseases such as gingivitis--diseases which often include bad breath among their side effects.

Yet apples are an effective way to freshen your breath for yet another, purely mechanical reason. You know that nice crunch when you bite into an apple? That sound represents the humble apple's natural ability to act as a scouring agent for your mouth. You see, the high levels of dietary fiber that make apples so crisp also help to scrub away bacteria and plaque from the surface of your teeth. Thus, eating apples helps to lower the chances of developing bad breath. Visit a site like http://tlcdentalohio.com for more information.