Many people worry about bad breath, either
their own or someone else’s. The advertising media have made
much of the social stigma arising from ‘offensive breath’
to their own advantage. Bad breath or halitosis may indicate a dental
problem, but this may not always be the case.
CAUSES
The odour may be caused by factors in the mouth or by changes occurring
in other parts of the body.
Local factors:
Decaying food particles on or between the
teeth
A coated tongue covered by growing microorganism.
Unclean dentures
Smell of tobacco
Alcohol
Gum diseases with pus production involved
Healing wounds after a surgery or extraction
Causes arising away from the mouth:
Head cold with infected nasal air passages
Acute inflammation of air spaces present
within the facial
bones (often filled with a great deal of pus )
Tonsillitis.
Many waste products are broken down from
food and drink
are excreted through the lungs and this applies to alcoholic
drinks as well as pungent foods like onion, garlic etc.
Diabetes in which the patient has a sweet
acetone breath.
Bad breath is not a disease; it is rather a symptom,
which indicates the presence of disease either within the mouth
or away from the mouth. Odours, which may appear unpleasant to many,
may not be the same to some e.g. People in the Mediterranean area
are accustomed to the scent of garlic ,a scent which many people
around the world find obnoxious.
Many people worry about bad breath, either
their own or someone else’s. The advertising media have made
much of the social stigma arising from ‘offensive breath’
to their own advantage. Bad breath or halitosis may indicate a dental
problem, but this may not always be the case. 