Dental Care

Bad Breath Home Remedies

Searching for bad breath home remedies? In a separate article we discussed how the tongue is one of the biggest sources of bad breath, and how cleaning your tongue thoroughly and effectively is not just one of the easiest, but also one of the most important steps you can take when you want to eliminate bad breath. 

Now, it's time to delve into the topic of how you can cleanse your tongue properly. As we mentioned in the other article, the rear ("posterior") portion of the tongue typically harbors most of the anaerobic bacteria that are responsible for bad breath. 

This means that the posterior part of the tongue is the most important part to clean.  Its position in your mouth means it can be a bit awkward and difficult to "get to," however.

Essentially, you'll need to use a technique that allows you to physically scrape away the bacteria, food particles and other debris that accumulate on the surface of your tongue. 

No matter which method you decide to use for cleaning your tongue, you should always try to clean as far back on your tongue as you can. 

Although this is one of the better bad breath home remedies, the process might cause you to gag a little, but don't worry - the gagging is a reflexive muscular contraction of the back of the throat which is triggered when you touch your soft palate. 

It's a perfectly normal response called the "pharyngeal reflex," but most people simply call it the "gag reflex."

Cleaning Utensils

You can clean your tongue with your ordinary toothbrush, or you can use a more specialized device called a tongue brush

Either way, start as far back on your tongue as possible and make brush strokes along your tongue, from the back toward the front of your mouth. 

Although you'll need to apply some pressure to the surface of your tongue while you're brushing, don't use too much or you could irritate your tongue.

Causes and Bad Breath Home Remedies

Simple bad breath (i.e., bad breath that is not being caused by periodontal disease or some other dental or health condition).

Bad breath is most frequently the result of the volatile sulfur compounds ("VSCs") that are released as metabolic byproducts by the anaerobic bacteria living within the mouth. 

Better Toothpaste

Being sulfuric, VCS's are highly odiferous and can result in truly unpleasant breath. 

Certain substances, such as zinc and chlorine dioxide, are able to neutralize the foul odors VSCs emanate, and one of the bad breath home remedies that can help involves using toothpaste that includes one of these VSC-neutralizing substances as one of its ingredients.

Chlorine dioxide is also an antibacterial agent, and if your toothpaste contains it or another antibacterial agent called cetylpyridinium chloride, brushing your tongue will not only dislodge the odor-producing bacteria, it will also kill them. 

Tongue Cleaning

Many people find brushing the tongue to be one of the bad breath home remedies that really produces results.  Other people, however, think using a tongue scraper to literally scrape the tongue provides even better results. 

In addition, at least some people tend to gag less frequently when using a tongue scraper instead of an ordinary toothbrush or even a tongue brush. 

Several different styles of tongue scrapers are commercially available and most are relatively inexpensive.  As an even less expensive alternative, you could use an ordinary spoon as a tongue scraper.

A smaller spoon (such as a teaspoon, for example) usually works better as a tongue scraper than a larger spoon like a tablespoon.  It's easy to experiment with using a spoon to scrape your tongue, however, so feel free to try different sizes of spoons until you find the size that gives you the best combination of comfort and results.

Simply pick out a clean spoon, flip it over so it's face down, and then scrape the surface of your tongue by drawing the spoon along your tongue from the back toward the front.  The edges of the spoon will collect saliva, bacteria and debris from your tongue as the spoon moves forward. 

While you're scraping, be thorough but gentle.  If you apply too much pressure or scrape too vigorously your tongue might become irritated.

Best Results

Modern research has shown that up to 90% of all bad breath is the result of oral bacteria living on the surface of the tongue. 

Cleansing your tongue regularly can remove much of this bacteria and is one of the best home bad breath home remedies. 

It's easy and inexpensive, but best of all, it's effective.


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