How to get rid of bad breath: when the mask shows you your halitosis problem

The masks we have worn during the coronavirus revealed a second hidden pandemic: halitosis. Time to end this old problem.

The first time I put on a mask it was horrible. At the beginning of the pandemic, my partner sent me to buy them at the neighborhood supermarket. I put my coveted blue mask over my nose and mouth and got ready to fight my neighbors for a few packets of toilet paper. I discovered that my mask had an awful smell: my own breath, scented with morning coffee and perhaps a hint of a hangover from last night's work. I got out of there as fast as I could and ran home to brush my teeth. That was my first tasting of the 'breath of the mask'.

Bad breath is a topic that no one wants to talk about. Yet we spend billions on mouthwashes, mints, gum, dental floss, and other products to try to prevent or at least hide bad breath. We rarely have to smell our own breath, but when the pandemic hit and millions of people started wearing masks, the truth became inescapable. Our breath stinks. Research confirms it.

One in three people suffer from bad breath , but how can this be fixed? Dr. Juan Ruiz de Gopegui, from the Ruiz de Gopegui Dental Clinic and professor of the Master's Degree in Aesthetic Dentistry at the Complutense University of Madrid, assures that “the origin of bad breath is generally oral. In 90% of cases of halitosis it has its origin and causes within the mouth. That is to say, it is a consequence of oral pathologies, oral infections or a lack of oral hygiene, which produces that unpleasant odor when breathing through the mouth. However, there are 10% of cases in which bad breath has its origin in external causes. Then it is usually due to intestinal problems or the suffering of systemic diseases.

Ah, smelly bacteria!

Scientists discovered that the main cause of bad breath, in most cases, are bacteria that live in the mouth, especially between our teeth, under the gum tissue and on the tongue. These bacteria produce stinky chemicals called 'volatile sulfur compounds' (VSCs). The bacteria that produce the most intense VSCs are anaerobic, meaning they live without oxygen, hiding in the nooks and crannies of our mouths.

Bad breath is a simple problem with an even simpler solution : Eliminate bacteria and their fetid emissions, which is as easy as doing what your dentist has told you a thousand times: “Brush your teeth after every meal and wait until you do it.” half an hour after food intake. Use an oral irrigator, dental floss and interproximal brushes to eliminate bacteria that are lodged in interdental spaces and finish the oral hygiene routine successfully with a good mouthwash or mouthwash”, Dr. Ruiz points out. Nor should we forget to visit the dentist at least once a year to plan a professional dental cleaning. Or if you suffer from periodontal diseases, dental curettage is the solution.

It is important to follow a healthy diet, on which good breath also depends: “Stay away from foods that cause halitosis and increase your intake of fruits and vegetables. Avoid added sugars and highly acidic foods. In this way you will also protect the dental enamel from bacterial action”, says Dr. Ruiz de Gopegui.

But there is even more, as Dr. Mel Rosenberg, emeritus professor of microbiology at Tel Aviv University, who has been researching halitosis since 1980, knows well. "Bad breath is a universal problem that there are still almost no studies on," he says. Rosenberg investigated this circumstance and has published dozens of clinical trials on bad breath. In one he discovered the link between bad breath, alcohol consumption and BMI (Body Mass Index).

Another study revealed that people are terrible at judging their own breath: some subjects had no idea their breath was stinky, while others believed their breath stank when it really wasn't. Psychologists call this 'delusional halitosis'. Rosenberg concluded that he could learn a great deal about a patient's health by smelling him. "I've probably smelled the breath of ten thousand people in my career," he says. He became a halitosis sommelier trained to distinguish potential causes of a patient's unpleasant breath and learned much about the relationship between oral health and general health.

“I could tell whether or not a patient had high blood pressure, depression, or insomnia, among other conditions, by their breath,” says Rosenberg. Some medications for these problems cause dry mouth, the main contributor to what researchers call 'mouth odour'. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment also suffer from dry mouth, as do people who use marijuana and those who breathe through their mouths when they sleep.

Your saliva contains minerals to prevent putrefaction, helps keep your mouth's pH balanced, and contains oxygen (the enemy of anaerobic bacteria). So if you're dehydrated, you probably have bad breath. If you take medication for high blood pressure, depression, or insomnia, you can ask your doctor if you can be switched to another medication that doesn't cause dry mouth as a side effect. Chewing gum containing the sweetener xylitol can also help, as it stimulates your salivary glands.

relationship with Alzheimer's

As Rosenberg sniffed more patients, he realized that some of them smelled more putrid than others. This stench, caused in part by two compounds with evocative names 'cadaverine' and 'putrescine', was a sign of periodontitis or gum disease.

Periodontitis results, in part, from poor oral hygiene over time, which allows bad bacteria to infiltrate the gum tissue. Bleeding gums represent an early stage of periodontitis called gingivitis. If allowed to advance, the bad microbes take over, invading the gums and creating pockets where more bacteria are stored, causing inflammation and reactions that later eat away at the bones and tissues that support the teeth.