bad breath

Everyone wants to maintain a healthy mouth with minty fresh breath. But if you use too much mouthwash, you might not get the intended results. Studies have shown that when it comes to mouthwash, there can be too much of a good thing.

How Much is Too Much?

Dentists often recommend mouthwash as part of a healthy oral hygiene routine. A study of 4,000 people conducted by the University of Glasgow in Scotland found that people who used antibacterial mouthwash more than three times a day had an increased risk of developing mouth and throat cancers. Some dentists also feel that certain types of mouthwash are too harsh and should never be used.

The Consequences of Using Too Much Mouthwash

The Glasgow study showed that excessive use of mouthwash – three or more times a day – correlated with an increased risk of certain oral cancers; that doesn't necessarily mean, however, that using too much mouthwash automatically causes cancer.

People who frequently use mouthwash to clean their mouths and teeth may be at a higher risk for some oral cancers because of poor overall oral hygiene. Some may rely on mouthwash to cover up odors from unhealthy habits such as smoking, chewing tobacco or drinking alcohol, behaviors that are already damaging to the teeth and gums as well as the overall mouth health.

Others may use mouthwash or an oral rinse as a substitute for routine brushing, flossing, and dental visits. While mouthwash can be an occasional “quick fix” to kill bacteria and freshen breath, everyone – particularly those who smoke or drink alcohol – still needs to follow a routine of daily brushing and flossing.

Mouthwashes that are alcohol-based can be dangerous in any quantity because the alcohol destroys the natural mucous in the mouth that should shield and protect the mouth from cancer-causing irritants. Without the natural mucous barrier, a person’s risk of developing oral cancer rises.

A smoker, for example, is already at an increased risk of certain types of cancer. If that person also regularly uses an alcohol-based mouthwash to rinse after smoking, he is repeatedly rinsing out the protective mucous, eliminating the body’s natural defense mechanism and further increasing the risk of developing cancer.

Another problem with using too much mouthwash is that many of the “bad” bacteria are found beneath the gum line, and a quick rinse with an alcohol-based mouthwash will usually only kill the “good” bacteria in the mouth without affecting the potentially dangerous bacteria below. When the good bacteria are gone, the mouth becomes even more susceptible to infections as the harmful elements are allowed to grow unchecked.

Rinsing with an alcohol-based mouthwash eliminates the protective properties of the mouth’s natural mucous production and can also cause the mouth to feel dry. Dry mouth can lead to more bad breath, causing people to reach for more mouthwash. It’s a cycle that, combined with other poor hygiene habits, can put people at a high risk for oral cancers.

How to Properly Use Mouthwash

Dentist recommendations on the use of mouthwash vary based on the dentist and the patient. Those who choose to use mouthwash as part of their oral hygiene regimen should choose a gentler rinse that does not contain alcohol and follow the instructions on the label.

A general rule of thumb for safe use is to limit the use of mouthwash to one time per day, in conjunction with brushing the teeth and flossing two to three times per day and visiting the dentist one to two times per year for routine oral health exams and screenings for oral cancers.

Worried your mouthwash is doing more harm than good? Make an appointment to visit Water Tower Dental Care today! We can take a look at your mouth and recommend a safe mouthwash based on your needs, whether you have a sensitive mouth or need more aggressive care.

Flossing has been making headlines recently thanks to the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The most recently released guidelines did not include flossing, which was once a recommended activity for daily health. But does this mean you shouldn’t floss every day? No, not at all. Not flossing can lead to serious dental problems. Trust us - we’ve seen how skipping the string can damage your oral health over and over again.

Though the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t include flossing in its 2015 dietary guidelines due to a lack of evidence, the department stated that this does not imply that flossing is not an important oral hygiene practice. In fact, the department stated that cleaning between teeth with floss is an important oral hygiene practice, and, along with professional cleanings and tooth brushing, has been shown to disrupt and remove plaque, according to the American Dental Association (ADA).
When it comes down to it, the U.S. Department of Health and Services didn’t include flossing this year because of a lack of documented research that flossing benefits you, not because it doesn’t actually provide any benefits. Flossing research is notoriously known for being high in costs and taking a long time, which explains why there isn’t a substantial amount of research showing its benefits. After all, it can take years to develop gum disease or tooth decay due to not flossing.
Here are four reasons why flossing every day is extremely important, and why you definitely shouldn’t stop now.

Clears Out Plaque in Tight Spaces

Sure, brushing can take care of plaque. But brush bristles can’t effectively clean out the tight spaces in between your teeth. And mouthwash typically isn’t powerful enough to move plaque that’s stuck between teeth. This is where floss comes in. Floss and interdental cleaners can clean out plaque that builds up between your teeth better than any other tools. Getting rid of that plaque will help to prevent cavities from forming in between your teeth and lower your risk of developing gum disease.

Fights Off Gum Disease and Tooth Decay

Scraps of food and bacteria can easily get stuck in the areas where your teeth and gums meet. These particles and bacteria can eventually transform from plaque into tartar, a hard deposit that can lead to tooth decay and gum disease.
If you don’t get rid of hard-to-reach plaque with floss, you may notice that your gums become red and swollen and bleed easily. This is a sign that you have gingivitis, a mild form of gum disease. Left untreated, the plaque and tartar can spread deeper into your gum line, causing more severe gum disease (periodontitis), which can lead to tooth and bone loss. Bacteria can also eat away at your enamel and teeth, causing tooth decay.

Gets Your Teeth Looking as Good as New

Nobody wants to look at a smile only to find big clumps of plaque and rotting food between the teeth. Flossing your teeth can help to make your smile look beautiful by keeping it clear of the nasty stuff that can build up inside your mouth. This will result in a bolder, brighter smile.

Fresher Breath

Flossing isn’t all about oral health and appearance. It can also make your breath smell better than ever! If you don’t floss, food can sit in between your teeth and rot for weeks. As you can imagine, this doesn’t make your breath smell too great. Flossing will keep rotting food particles out of your mouth and allow saliva to effectively move through your teeth, keeping everything clean and smelling great!
Flossing every day is essential to your oral health. Without flossing, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of hard-to-reach plaque, which can lead to serious gum disease and tooth decay over time. Learn more about how often you should floss and common flossing mistakes here.

Food products like garlic and onion are known to cause bad breath. But did you know that some foods can actually help your breath smell good? It’s true. Mints aren’t the only solution to a stinky mouth. Here are five foods that can actually make your breath smell great!

Dairy

Dairy isn’t just great for your pearly whites. Dairy products like yogurt and cheese are also pretty good at fighting off bad breath. Cheese neutralizes acids after you’ve eaten, making sure that they don’t give off any sour smells. Probiotic yogurts with live active cultures can reduce sulfite compounds in your mouth that cause bad breath. The vitamin D in these yogurts also reduces smelly mouth bacteria.

Crunchy Apples and Celery

An apple a day keeps the smell away. Crisp and crunchy foods like apples and celery actually clean your teeth, removing soft and sticky food that’s stuck there. These foods can also push plaque away from your teeth when you bite into them. Just because they do some scrubbing doesn’t mean you should skip brushing or flossing. But apples and celery are a great snack between meals to keep your mouth smelling fresh.

Fennel Seeds

Fennel seeds are extremely flavorful and aromatic, so it’s no surprise they can keep bad breath at bay. These seeds work to neutralize bad smells in your mouth. But along with that, they actually have antibacterial properties, giving them the power to fight off bacteria that causes bad breath.

Ginger

If you’ve ever taken a bite out of ginger, you know it packs a punch. Ginger is regularly used to clean your palate. And it also gets rid of bad breath with its powerful flavor. Just make sure you like the flavor of ginger before you bite into it or make a drink with it, because you can’t plug your nose to escape its flavor.

Fruits That Pack a Lot of Vitamin C

Along with keeping your body healthy, vitamin C keeps bad breath away. The bacteria that causes bad breath can’t actually grow very well in environments filled with vitamin C. Fruits that also contain a lot of water, like melons and citrus fruit, can wash rotting food and bacteria away. Try eating strawberries, cantaloupe or oranges next time you notice your breath smelling funky.
We hope you give these foods a try next time you have bad breath. If you can’t seem to get rid of the smell, feel free to contact Water Tower Dental Care. If you have a dental issue causing your bad breath, we’ll get to the bottom of it!

When it comes to taking care of your teeth, there’s a lot more you can do than just brushing and flossing. In fact, those are just the first two steps to keeping your teeth healthy. Adding oral probiotics to your teeth-cleaning routine will help to ensure that you keep cavities away and an attractive smile going.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics have been growing in popularity for years because of their ability to improve digestive health. But in recent years, probiotics have also been found to improve your oral health by naturally getting rid of cavity-causing plaque. So what exactly are probiotics and how are they so helpful?
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health defines probiotics as live organisms that are intended to have health benefits. Typically, these live organisms are good bacteria. Yes, you read that right. Bacteria can be good for you - and even for good your teeth. Probiotics work by crowding out the bad bacteria in your mouth with good bacteria. The more good bacteria there are in your mouth, the less room there will be for bad bacteria to grow and rot your teeth, slowing down the plaque build-up process. While foods like yogurt are full of probiotics, the probiotics derived by this kind of food can’t fight bacteria in your mouth like it can in your stomach.

 How Can Probiotics Help Your Mouth and Teeth?

So now that you know that probiotics can cause less bad bacteria to grow in your mouth, you’re probably wondering how exactly that helps your teeth and mouth. Evora, a maker of oral probiotics, notes that there are three major ways that the ProBiora3 probiotics improve your oral health:

• They support gum and tooth health.
  Since less bad bacteria will be growing on your teeth and gums, probiotics will help to keep your teeth healthy. Mayo Clinic writes that high levels of bad bacteria can cause gum disease and tooth decay. 
• They make your breath smell better.
  Stinky breath is caused by bad bacteria sitting in your mouth. Since probiotics don’t allow a lot of room for the bacteria that cause bad breath to grow, your mouth should smell a lot better.
• They whiten your teeth over time.
  ProBiora3 probiotics from Evora produce low doses of hydrogen peroxide. Over time, these low doses gently whiten your teeth. Unlike other teeth whitening treatments, you won’t feel any sensitivity or gum irritation from this natural teeth whitening process.

Probiotics are an important addition to everyone’s dental health routine. Though they don’t replace brushing and flossing, probiotics do support these activities, making your teeth and gums even healthier. All you have to do is eat probiotics a few times a month to make a difference in your mouth.
If you’re interested in learning more about probiotics or purchasing them for the first time, speak to our dental experts at Water Tower Dental Care. We would love to help you pick the best type of probiotics for your teeth and gums and help you better understand how they make your smile look its best.

When it comes to mouths, people typically care most about their teeth. But your gums are just as important as your pearly whites. Gums hold your teeth together, keep them protected from bacteria, can give you bad breath, and can even affect your overall health. So how do you know how healthy your gums are? Our dental experts are going to walk you through the differences between the look and feel of gums with gingivitis vs. healthy gums.

What is Gingivitis?

Many people have gingivitis without even knowing it. You might even have it as you’re reading this now. Since it’s a mild form of gum disease, it can be hard to detect. But it’s very common. Gingivitis occurs when the bacteria in plaque build up around your gums, causing a variety of reversible symptoms. Symptoms of this early stage of gum disease include gum swelling, receding, pain, irritation, bleeding and redness. If you don’t treat gingivitis, it can lead to more serious gum disease, or periodontitis, which is the primary cause of adult tooth loss.

What Do Healthy Gums Look and Feel Like?

As long as you take good care of your gums and teeth with daily flossing and brushing, your gums should be pretty healthy. Here are some of the features of healthy gums:

• They look pink, although this may vary depending on your natural complexion. If gums are white, red, or unnaturally black, you may have gingivitis or gum disease.
• They are firm and unable to be moved.
• They are tight around your teeth teeth.
• They haven’t receded.
• They don’t bleed when you brush your teeth or eat hard foods.
• They aren’t swollen or puffy.

What Does Gingivitis Look and Feel Like?

If you don’t brush your teeth or floss properly, you may develop gingivitis. Here are some common features of gingivitis to look out for on your gums:

• They look and feel swollen.
• They bleed easily when you brush your teeth, eat or get your teeth cleaned by the dentist.
• They are occasionally painful, tender or irritating.
• They feel soft to the touch.
• Their color changes from pink to red.
• You have bad breath.
• Your gums are receding.

What Causes Gingivitis?

The most common cause of gingivitis and gum disease is plaque. Plaque is made up of bacteria that irritates your gums and eats away at your teeth enamel. It forms around your gums and teeth when the food you eat interacts with the normal bacteria in your mouth. That’s why it’s important to get food and plaque out of your mouth by thoroughly brushing and flossing.
The longer plaque is left in your mouth, the more likely it is to harden and turn into tartar. Tartar is much more difficult to get rid of than plaque, typically requiring a dentist to remove. It’s basically like a shield for bacteria to eat away at your gums and teeth. If left untreated, this eventually leads to your gums becoming very irritated and unhealthy as you begin to develop gum disease.
As long as you only have gingivitis, you can always get rid of it with proper oral hygiene techniques and a visit to the dentist. Don’t let gingivitis cause irreversible damage by developing into more serious gum disease. If you think you might have gingivitis, book an appointment with us at Water Tower Dental Care. Our number one Chicago practice can let you know the status of your gums and put you on the right path to a healthier smile.

Bad breath doesn’t just ruin dates. It can also be a problem that embarrasses you every time you open your mouth to talk to someone. Worst of all, a surprising number of people suffer from bad breath, even if they practice proper oral hygiene.
We all know that onions and garlic cause your mouth to smell. But if you avoid these foods and have tried everything to make your mouth smell more pleasant, you may be surprised by what’s really causing your bad breath. Check out 6 surprising causes of bad breath below to see if you can discover the culprit causing your oral problem.

Your Habit of Not Eating Breakfast

When it comes to your breath, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Eating in the morning banishes morning breath by promoting salivation and getting rid of some of the bacteria that causes the stink in your mouth. Try munching on citrus fruits or nuts for the best results. And avoid onions, of course.

Your Sick Nose

Just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Sinus problems, like allergies and even a normal cold, can cause bad breath. The mucus in your nose drips down to the back of your throat, which doesn’t make your mouth smell too great. Not only that, but when you have a stuffy nose, it’s likely that you’ll breath through your mouth instead. When this happens, you’re drying your mouth of the saliva that helps to wash away nasty-smelling bacteria.

Your Snoring Problem

Learning that you snore is bad news in itself. Unfortunately, we’ve got even more bad news about your sleeping problem: snoring might be the reason you wake up with horrible breath every morning. When you snore in the middle of the night, it’s likely you’re breathing with your mouth open. Just like with a stuffy nose or sleep apnea, this causes your saliva to dry out and gives you bad breath.

Sticky Food and Candy

When you eat sticky food or candy, you’re not the only one enjoying it. Bacteria love munching on the tasty foods your saliva can’t wash away. Food like peanut butter, gummy bears and laffy taffy can stick around in your teeth for hours, causing bacteria to grow and multiply in hard-to-reach places in your mouth. Try to avoid these kinds of food if you suffer from bad breath regularly.

Your Meds

Though your medications may be helping you with other issues, they might not be helping your mouth smell any better. A dry mouth is a side-effect of many common meds, including antidepressants, antibiotics, and painkillers, like aspirin. When your mouth is dry, your saliva is no longer getting rid of odorous bacteria.

Your Mouthwash

This one is probably the most surprising. Instead of making your mouth smell better, your mouthwash may be the cause of your bad breath. Mouthwash that contains a lot of alcohol can cause your mouth to dry out, promoting the buildup of bacteria. As long as you buy mouthwash that is alcohol-free, you should be fine.
We hope this information helps you to find the culprit of your bad breath. If you still can’t figure out what’s causing your nasty mouth odor, feel free to visit us at Water Tower Dental Care. The problem may be a dental issue. If that’s the case, we can definitely help you out.

You may have heard of the many health benefits of tea, but did you know tea is really good for your teeth as well? Both black and green tea contain catechins, also known as antioxidants, which help remove harmful bacteria from your mouth.
However, tea does so much more than that. Next to water, it’s the most helpful liquid you can drink. Here are five ways tea is helping your oral health.

Tea Helps Your Gums

Tea is known to have anti-inflammatory elements that help control swelling, bleeding, and infection in your gums. By replacing bad bacteria with good bacteria in your mouth and helping prevent your gums from becoming inflamed, tea is a great way to help fight against periodontal disease.

It Helps Prevent Cavities

Along with clearing out bacteria, tea also helps lower the acidic levels of saliva and plaque in your mouth. Acidic elements are what eat away at the teeth to create cavities. When tea washes away this acidity, it’s harder for cavities to start.

It Keeps Your Teeth In Your Mouth

That’s right, not only can it keep your gums and teeth healthy, it can also help keep your teeth from falling out when you’re older. Studies have shown that men and women who drink one or more cups of tea a day hold onto their natural teeth for longer.

Tea Improves Your Breath

Bad breath derives from bacteria that grow in the far back of your throat, a place that’s hard to reach with a toothbrush. Without proper care, the bacteria breed enough to cause a foul smell. Tea helps by washing away and killing the bacteria, making it easy for your breath to smell fresh all day.

It Helps Prevent Oral Cancer

Antioxidants help every part of the body fight cellular damage and tumor growth. When you drink tea, you’re filling your mouth with antioxidants that are able to help keep your mouth from developing cancerous tumors.
To better help your teeth and mouth, you should know the best way to drink your tea. First, green and black tea are both good for you, but green is definitely better. Black tea is slightly more processed, which results in less antioxidants. And if you like white teeth, black tea is better avoided as it can stain those pearly whites.
To make tea correctly, boil water and pour the hot water over the tealeaves in a ceramic cup. Then, cover the cup with a saucer for 2 to 3 minutes as the tea steeps. This will help get the most out of every bag of tea.
Avoid adding sugar to your tea as bacteria loves to feed off of sugar. Also avoid bottled iced tea as it tends to have citric elements that can help raise the acidic levels of saliva.
If you have any more questions about how tea can help your teeth or if you would like to visit Chicago’s number one rated dentistry, contact Water Tower Dental today. We’re happy to help answer any questions and put you on the path to a better, brighter smile.

If you have trouble with bad breath, you might find that onions and garlic are two of your worst enemies. While other smelly foods can usually be defeated with a mint or a quick swish of mouthwash, onions and garlic always seem to be a lot harder to combat. That’s due to the chemical makeup of onions, garlic, and any plant in the allium plant family (shallots, scallions, leeks, etc).

Garlic, onions, and the rest of the allium plant family affect your breath in two ways. The first is how most other foods give you bad breath, which is by the sulfuric compounds that actually get stuck in your mouth. They get stuck either between your teeth, in the pockets of your gums, or on your tongue. As the food is broken down and rots in your mouth, it begins to smell worse, thus giving you bad breath.
The second way allium plants affect your breath is slightly more complicated. When you eat garlic and other allium plants, you digest certain chemical compounds. The one that affects your breath is known as allyl methyl sulfide. This chemical comes out as a gas and is absorbed into the bloodstream. By traveling through the blood it is able to enter the lungs where it is exhaled. Unfortunately for us, allyl methyl sulfide gives off quite a harsh smell. This is why garlic, onions, and all of the allium plants give you bad breath that’s almost impossible to combat.

Getting Rid of Garlic and Onion Breath

There’s good news and bad news when combating garlic and onion breath. First, the bad news: The only way to completely eliminate garlic and onion breath is by not eating garlic and onions. That’s because there really is no way to remove the smell of garlic or onions from your bloodstream. The good news, however, is that, although you can’t completely eliminate the smell of garlic or onions, you can get rid of a good deal of the smell as well as take preventative measures to ensure your bad breath doesn’t get out of control.

Brush, Floss and Use Mouthwash

Of course, first and foremost, the best way to rid your mouth of garlic and onion breath is with proper hygiene practices. Flossing, brushing, and mouthwash will all help remove food particles in your mouth while killing bad bacteria and leaving your mouth looking and feeling fresh.

Parsley Can Help With Bad Breath

Ever see that little sprig of green on your plate at a restaurant? That’s parsley and it’s there to help your mouth. Chewing that bit of green can help neutralize the odors of garlic and onions. Even better, parsley in the meal can help keep the bad breath from developing in the first place.

Eat Lemons to Neutralize the Garlic and Onion Odor

Lemons help by neutralizing garlic and onion odor while also killing the bad bacteria associated with bad breath. Try sucking on a lemon wedge after a meal that’s loaded with either of the two smelly plants. Your breath will feel fresher almost instantly.

Drink Green Tea

If you’re concerned about bad garlic or onion breath, drinking green tea can really help. The polyphenols in tea are able to combat and reduce the amount of sulfur compounds produced by them.

Drink Milk While You're Eating the Smelly Food

And lastly, for those who are most concerned about their breath, studies have shown that milk can actually help reduce the odor of garlic or onions. Though for best possible results, one should drink milk with every bite of they take.
While fighting bad breath from allium plants might be a hard task, there are plenty of ways you can help prevent bad breath from occurring. Whether by brushing and flossing, or trying out some home remedies, you can help reduce the smell of garlic and onions on your breath.
For more information about the best and worst foods for your breath, click here. We here at Water Tower Dental Care are always happy to help you with any oral health questions you may have. Feel free to contact Water Tower Dental today.
 

You may have the straightest, most beautiful, and gleaming white teeth, but that doesn’t mean your mouth smells nice. If you take care of your teeth, you might still have bad breath. However don’t be surprised if bad oral hygiene coincides with bad breath. Either way, horrible-smelling breath is a major concern for anyone who wants to make a good impression on someone, or just wants to hold a conversation.
To combat bad breath, you first need to know what causes it, and then how to fight it. There are many reasons that bad breath can occur. First, there are the natural ways that unfortunately occur from eating garlic or onions. This kind of bad breath comes from the stomach and the bloodstream, travels to your lungs, and reappears on your breath. Other causes of bad breath include using tobacco products, having a dry mouth, and having bad oral hygiene.

The main cause, however, comes from bacteria that is living on the back of your tongue. This is why most men and women have bad breath. The bacteria, known as volatile sulfur compounds, live far back on the tongue where a toothbrush cannot reach. This is why many people who may have great looking teeth can also experience bad breath.
So what’s the solution to the problem of reaching far back on the tongue and combating that terrible smelling bacteria? There’s a few things you can do.

Ways You Can Prevent Bad Breath in Your Bathroom

Brush and Floss
While your toothbrush and floss can’t reach the back of your tongue, a big reason that far away bacteria is able to survive is because of the sugars, acids, and other bacteria than live in between your teeth and the pockets of your gums. The cleaner your mouth is from brushing and flossing, the harder it is for the volatile sulfur compounds to survive.
Use A Mouthwash with Chlorine Dioxide
Swish the mouthwash around in your mouth and gargle with your tongue sticking out. Make sure that the mouthwash reaches as far back in your mouth as possible without you swallowing it. Most mouthwashes will combat and kill bacteria, however chlorine dioxide is known to be especially effective at washing away those pesky bad-breath-causing bacterias.
Use a Tongue Scraper
We’ve praised the tongue scraper a few times on our blog, and that is because it’s truly effective. A lot of the bacteria that grows on the tongue can actually be seen if you stick your tongue far out. It will look like a milky white film. Gross, right? While brushing your tongue can loosen some of this bacteria, a tongue scraper is specifically designed to pull off the bacteria on the back of the tongue. Use your fingers to pull your tongue out as far as possible to make sure to remove the bacteria from the farthest reaches of your tongue. Make sure to rinse the tongue scraper after each use as well, so that you don’t allow the bacteria to return to where it was.
When it comes to a routine to help you keep your breath fresh and tongue bacteria-free, we recommend first using mouthwash, then the tongue scraper, brushing and flossing, and finally, if you’re really working hard to kick that bad breath, use mouthwash once more.

Tips for Preventing Bad Breath When You’re Out of the House

When you’re not in front of a sink working on correcting your bad breath, and you’re out of the house, here are a few tips to keep your breath in check.
Drink a lot of Water
A great defense for bad breath is flushing out particles, acids, and bacterias from your mouth by drinking lots of water, especially with meals or after drinking a darker liquid (coffee, tea, cola, etc.).
Chew on Herbs
That little green piece of grass on your plate at lunch? That’s actually parsley, and it’s great for neutralizing bad smells in your mouth. Mint is another effective herb to have around and take a bite out of. You’ll be surprised how fresh your mouth can feel and smell after eating it.
Chew Gum with Xylitol
Similar to fresh herbs, gum with xylitol can help fight bacteria and keep your breath fresh. We advise avoiding gum or mints that contain a lot of sugar, because while they may work for a little bit, they also harm your teeth and don’t really combat the problem of bad breath. Instead, they temporarily cover it up.
If you follow these tips, you should have fresh breath everyday. If you are still experiencing bad breath after following all of these suggestions, you may be experiencing a larger issue, such as a dead tooth or a medical condition you’re unaware of. If so, contact Water Tower Dental. We can help you develop a routine for fresh breath and a healthy smile that’s right for you.

We all hate dealing with bad breath. Whether it’s our own or someone else’s, it’s never a fun experience. And even though you may brush, floss, and use mouthwash everyday, you still find that your breath can become rather nasty by the end of the day (or less fortunately, the middle). Great oral hygiene is a start to combating bad breath, however, sometimes our bad breath is directly related to the food we do (and don’t) eat. There are plenty of foods that cause bad breath, and some that help fight the awful smells. Here’s our list of the top foods for each.

The Worst Foods For Your Breath

Garlic
No one should be surprised to learn that garlic is tough on breath. Though extremely healthy for you, it’ll leave you mouth steaming with funky smells. This is because, not only is it a hard smell to wash out of the mouth, garlic is absorbed into the bloodstream by a chemical known as allyl methyl sulfide. As it travels through your blood, it makes it to your lungs and pushes out of you like smoke out a chimney. Brush your teeth all you want, it can’t save you from the power of smelly garlic.
Onions
Similar to garlic, onions contain an amino acid known as allin. Once cut, the amino acid turns to propenyl sulfuric acid, the chemical responsible for making you tear up when cutting this veggie. And if you think it smells bad when cutting, just imagine how your friends feel when they have to hold a conversation with you. Eating raw onions can send your breath down a slippery slope from bad to so much worse, so we recommend cooking onions before eating, at least for the sake of your friends.
Coffee
Can something that smells good give you bad breath? Coffee is your case and point. The acidity of coffee can linger inside your mouth for a long time, making saliva its sour friend. As well, the acidity from the coffee can neutralize the acid in your stomach allowing gastric juices to make an appearance out of the mouth. Not good for breath… Not good for anything.
Curry
The mother of all bad breath inducers, Indian curries are a mix of onion, garlic, fennel, and other spicy ingredients that will send anyone in a 3-foot radius of you running for the hills (if they don’t pass out first).

The Best Foods For Your Breath

Crunchy Fruit and Veggies
To combat all of these breath-killing foods, you need a defense strategy, and first in line are crunchy fruits and vegetables. Apples, carrots, celery and other fiber-rich fruits and veggies are your natural toothbrush. Their fibrous texture is able to push plaque and nasty food stuck in your teeth out of your mouth. As well, they increase saliva production, which helps rinse out the mouth.
Yogurt
Yogurt is truly an amazing food. It’s made of probiotics, bacteria that’s good for you. When consumed, it’s able to reduce the level of hydrogen sulfide in the mouth (that’s the stuff that makes your breath bad in the first place). Of course, make sure you’re choosing the right yogurt, the kind with active cultures. Avoid any yogurt that has too much sugar or is over-processed.
Vitamin C-heavy Fruits
Fruits high in vitamin C such as berries, oranges, and melons can help reduce the amount of bacteria growth in the mouth. High in vitamins and acidity, it’s able to keep bacteria at bay along with helping prevent periodontal disease.
Fresh Herbs
For those of you still wondering what that little green piece of grass on your dinner plate is, here’s your answer: parsley. A natural palate cleanser, parsley contains chlorophyll which helps reduce bad breath smells, as well as makes your mouth lose the taste of all the food you may have eaten. But don’t stop there; many herbs can help fight breath including coriander, spearmint, tarragon, and rosemary.
Water
Of course, the simplest food of all is one of the best to help cure bad breath. Much of the time, bad breath is caused by food that’s just stuck in your teeth and gums. Water helps flush out the mouth and gets it to a point of freshness. It’s like putting your dishes in the dishwasher. They don’t just sit there with the hopes that all the food stuck on the plate goes away. They’re bombarded with water splashing against them so they can be clean and clear. The same goes for your teeth, the more water you drink, the fresher your mouth will be.
Though some foods cannot be avoided and will give you harsh breath from time to time. Most of the time, the best way to keep your breath fresh and healthy is by drinking lots of water, then brushing and flossing after every meal. Don’t wait too long afterwards because that’s prime time for bacteria to build up and make a home. If you want fresh breath proper oral hygiene will go a long way.
 

A large percentage of Americans suffer from bad breath. While good oral hygiene can help keep bad breath at bay, sometimes a mouth needs to take further measures to help keep it from smelling too bad. Today we'd like to discuss a few natural ways to help reduce bad smelling breath.
Bad breath comes from bacteria that breed at the back of your tongue, throat, and tonsils. The more this bacterium grows, the harsher your breath will smell. In the morning, your breath can often be the worst because the bacteria had all night to grow and produce while you slept. There are some great natural ways to help reduce the smell of bad breath and keep the bacteria in the back of your throat controlled. Here are a few of the best natural recommendations:

Parsley

Not just used for decoration on your dinner plate, parsley is a natural palate cleanser. Rich in the chemical chlorophyll it can help neutralize the bad breath and clear away any tastes in your mouth.
Parsley is also an anti-mutagen. Mutagen is a mutation, chemical or biologically, of a substance, in this case bacteria. It can change from an unscented chemical to something much worse. Parsley stops the substance from this action. Try a few sprigs of parsley after dinner; it's a great way to keep the mouth fresh.

Apples

Apples as well as any kind of fiber-rich fruit can help battle bad breath. One of bad breath's triggers is a dry mouth. Fiber-rich fruit helps activate saliva to wash away bad bacteria. Natural enzymes in apples are able to help break down the sulfur compounds that cause bad breath. As well, the texture of fruit acts as a natural toothbrush that can help clear the mouth of old food and plaque, which often helps lead to bad breath.

Lemon

The use of a lemon can help activate your salivary glands to flush away bad breath. Try sucking on a lemon or even squeezing some of the juice in a fresh glass of water. The acidity helps kill bad bacteria as well as salivate your mouth. Dry mouth is one of the leading causes for bad breath, so helping keep the mouth hydrated and wet is extremely important

Water

That leads to our next tip, keep your mouth hydrated with water to avoid bad breath. Make sure to drink the daily-recommended amount of water every day: at least eight cups. Often people who do jobs that require a lot of talking have worse breath because they dry out their mouth. Be aware of your hydration levels and make sure to keep drinking lots of water throughout the day.

Fresh Herbs

Originally, before toothpaste, many people used fresh herbs to keep their mouth clean and breath fresh. That's because most fresh herbs contain chlorophyll, which absorbs bad odors. Just like parsley, many other herbs can curb the smell of bad breath. Especially helpful herbs include mint, peppermint, dill, and basil. If you chew then swallow the fresh herbs after a meal, they can continue to help fight bad breath throughout the night.

Avoid Sugars

A natural way to prevent bad breath sometimes doesn't mean eating certain foods, but rather avoiding the bad ones. Sugars are especially great at promoting the growth of bad breath bacteria. Avoiding anything too sugary (i.e. candy, desserts, chocolate, soda, energy drinks) will both eliminate bad breath and help keep you just a little healthier.
While these are all great tips, we cannot stress how important it is to brush and floss daily, at least twice a day. Removing plaque, food remnants, and harmful bacteria is the best way to keep your teeth, gums, and tongue healthy. Try softly brushing your tongue, reaching as far back as possible to help scrub away bad bacteria that can be causing bad breath.
As well, don't hesitate to make an appointment with your local dentist. At Water Tower Dental we perform routine cleanings that help remove tartar from teeth, eliminate areas of bacteria build up, and advise you on how to keep your breath as fresh as possible. If you're in the Chicago-land area, make an appointment today and be well on your way to a healthy smile.

Like a majority of Americans waking up early and setting off to work every morning, we enjoy a good cup of coffee to help wake us up. That shot of caffeine helps us get moving at the beginning of our day and keeps us on our toes through the afternoon. With almost daily consumption of coffee though, many of our patients ask if it's bad for their teeth. This is a hard question to answer, mostly because we enjoy drinking coffee just as much as the next person, so telling our patients that it's bad for them would make us feel just as guilty for drinking it! However, joking aside, coffee isn't the best drink for your teeth, however it's not the worst. Let's explain.

What Coffee Does To Your Teeth

Hot liquids, no matter what kind, are likely to open the pores on your teeth. When this happens, your teeth are more susceptible to damage, especially when drinking something very acidic. And guess what, coffee's level of acidity is quite high. Acidic drinks are much better at breaking down tooth enamel than base drinks like water or milk. The more your hard outer coating of enamel thins, the more the underneath layer, dentin, with its yellowish hue will be revealed.
As well, when your mouth becomes more acidic, it can breed bacteria faster. If there's one thing bacteria loves, it's acidity. Worse, the more bacteria that re-produces, the more acidic waste it produces, which then breeds more bacteria. It's a domino effect that's worth preventing. Large amounts of bacteria in your mouth can cause a range of problems from bad breath to gum disease.
Not only does coffee breed bacteria, but it can also stain your teeth very easily. Have you ever spilled coffee on your shirt or your carpet? Those stains don't come out too easily, do they? Well, the same goes for your teeth. Coffee is one of the leading causes of stained teeth (tobacco being the leading cause). When you drink coffee, the caffeine interferes with the natural saliva production process, which means it's harder to wash out the coffee in your mouth, leading to some pretty nasty stains.

How To Prevent Coffee Teeth Stains

All of this information is probably not what you want to hear. Believe us, we don't like hearing it either. However, there are solutions to helping prevent any long-term damage when drinking coffee. Follow these tips:
1. Limit Your Time With Coffee
Although it may be fun to sip your coffee all day, the longer you drink it, the more time you're giving bacteria to grow. Drink your coffee in a reasonable amount of time. Your teeth will thank you.
2. Use a Straw
If you're drinking iced coffee, or just don't mind looking a little silly, use a straw. This will allow the drink to bypass your teeth. You can still taste the coffee-goodness but miss some of the acidic and teeth-staining attributes.
3. Brush Brush Brush
After you drink your coffee, it's a good idea to brush your teeth to remove any stains and bacteria. However, obviously we don't all bring a toothbrush to the cafe, so at the very least, rinse with water.
If you're worried that your coffee habit has already stained your teeth to an unmanageable level, there's still a solution. Water Tower Dental Care offers teeth whitening that is guaranteed to eliminate those yellow and brown stains. Extremely simple and fast, we offer Zoom! Whitening which can brighten your smile up to eight shades in about an hour. It's a very easy process, first the doctor applies a special pH-balanced hydrogen peroxide solution to the surface of your teeth. Next, a special low-heat light activates the solution and brightens the teeth. It's that simple.

For more questions about our dental work, visit our homepage and find the dental solutions for you. We'll be happy to help.