Fighting Halitosis with Tongue Scrapers
Halitosis, otherwise known as bad breath, occurs when food collects in your mouth around your teeth, gums, and tongue. These leftover food particles can cause an unpleasant odor in your mouth, and for the person sitting next to you.
A key way to fight halitosis is to remove all food particles from your mouth after eating. Another possible way is to use a tongue scraper. A review of tongue scrapers by the Cochrane Collaboration found that tongue scrapers were only slightly better than normal brushing at fighting bad breath, but that they did help.
Do everything you can to remove excess food from your mouth, including using a tongue scraper, to lower your risk of bad breath. A tongue scraper works to dislodge foods and bacteria in your mouth so that they don’t have the opportunity to decompose and smell.
If you still can’t manage to keep your mouth odor at bay, try keeping a written log of what foods you eat. You may be able to see a correlation between what you are eating and your bad breath. But, if your bad breath persists, talk to your dentist. Bad breath can be an indicator for many diseases, like postnasal drip, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, and liver or kidney problems.
