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DENTAL
FAQ's Bad
Breadth, Bad tastes and other unpleasantness
It'll
take more than RETSYN® this time... The demand for products to deodorize and mask oral odors has never been greater; just witness the profusion of products on store shelves and advertisements for them in the media. While the need not to offend is a valid objective, the fact should not be lost that some odor is normal, while some may be a sign of something more significant. Below are reproduced a smattering of the many questions we receive on this topic. Q: I often
have a bad taste in my mouth and it seems to originate from the tongue.
Whenever I brush it thoroughly it is okay for a short while. However,
after a while or shortly after eating, my tongue seems to perhaps build up
something on it. I don't often get a visible white coating, and often if I
scrape my tongue, nothing will come off. It is at its worst in the morning
when I wake up and late at night. In the morning I sometimes do have a
residue on my tongue and have an unpleasant feeling/taste. I maintain
good dental hygiene - I brush teeth and tongue regularly and I floss. What
can you recommend? I've tried various mouthwashes, but they don't seem to
do anything. Particularly the ones with alcohol in. Is it possible that my
saliva doesn't contain certain enzymes that normally destroy some of the
bacteria on the tongue. Or could it be that my saliva just doesn't contain
enough? Or perhaps there is something wrong with my tongue. I would
appreciate it if you could help me on this. A: The source
of oral malodor can be anywhere in the path of the airway, although the
mouth is often the area first to garner suspicion. One thing we
have found is that a person is ill equipped to determine the presence or
absence of his own bad breath. We have often encountered patients unaware
of their own severe halitosis, and conversely, we have frequently
encountered patients complaining of bad breath that we found to be
undetectable. The mouth is
a warm, moist environment with a sufficient supply of organic nutrients to
keep oral bacteria healthy, happy, and proliferating. We think that an
instrument (toothbrush, dental floss, tooth pick, etc.) that is used and
then thrust under the nose will always yield a detectable scent. Happily,
this is not a common social activity! What we are
saying is that you may not have the problem that you think. "Morning
mouth" is a common condition caused by the slowing of salivary flow
during sleep. This permits the accumulation of desquamated epithelial
cells, organic debris, and bacteria, which would otherwise be cleared from
the mouth and swallowed. Everyone has this to an extent. Antimicrobial
factors in saliva (enzymes and antibodies) are thought to be irrelevant to
bad breath; it is more related to the volume of salivary flow. You should
discuss this issue with your dentist. He will be able to determine the
extent of your oral malodor, and whether there is a dental basis for it.
Be warned, though, that we have seen patients obsessively consult
dentists, otolaryngologists, gastroenterologists, and endocrinologists in
a vain attempt to find a cure for this problem which, in their case, did
not exist in our opinion. Q: How do I
get rid of garlic breath? Please help
quick! A: The only
way to get rid of garlic breath is not to eat it; that's sometimes
difficult to do, since it is not always obvious that what you're eating
has garlic. Sorry if this
answer was not timely enough to help you out of your apparent predicament.
In the future, you might insist whoever is in your company to consume a
clove of garlic immediately; that person's garlic will cancel out your
garlic--some kind of corollary of Newtonian physics or something like that
;-) P.S. In some
parts of the world, there are local culinary ingredients that present
similar social problems; in Asia and the South Pacific, the durian fruit
has a the same reputation as garlic does in Mediterranean cuisine. If you
ever try a durian, you'll know what we mean!
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