Curing Bad Breath With Your Dentist’s Help

The process of curing bad breath can be made easier by your dentist. The expert knowledge of your dentist will come in handy in finding the cause and the possible treatment options for your bad breath. To treat bad breath, there should also be an equally concerted effort by both you and your dentist.

The dentist may start by giving you the list of possible causes for your bad breath. After providing the list, the dentist divides the list into factors that you can control, the factors that he can control and the factors that need another professional’s help.

The factors that are under your control as the patient include:

1. Poor brushing habits, which lead to accumulation of plaque on the teeth and other surfaces in the mouth

2. Poor tongue-cleaning habits.

3. Lack of cleaning of the area towards the throat.

4. Using tobacco.

5. Using alcohol.

6. Intake of foods that are known to cause bad breath.

7. Not cleaning dentures or other prostheses that you use within the mouth, which may accumulate food debris and cause malodor

The factors that the dentist can control include:

1. The presence of tartar, which you cannot remove using your regular toothbrush. In this case the dentist or hygienist will need to do scaling to remove the tartar/calculus. The process of scaling should be done not only once but on at least two appointments so that the bad breath can be monitored for any improvement.

2. The dentist may diagnose a gum disease which could be the cause of the bad breath. In this case, a prescription for some mouthwash, and maybe other treatment modalities to remove the gum disease, is used. After healing from the disease, the bad breath usually ends.

3. The dentist can teach you better ways and strokes to brush your teeth.
4. The dentist can teach you how to keep any appliance you wear, such as dentures or braces, clean.

The factors for which another physician or professional are needed include:

1. Control of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes can produce a characteristic bad breath. This can be improved when the physician and the dentist confer and work well together.

2. Diseases that cause kidney failure, where there is a discharge of bad breath, caused by  the uremic salts expelled through the nose and mouth. When controlled , the kidney disease may not produce any bad breath.

Contact a dentist or dental hygienist at Water Brook Dental in Washington DC for a dental check-up and other dental needs. Water Brook Dental has two locations in Washington DC. The Columbia Heights location is very  conveniently located to Downtown DC, Northeast DC, Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, U-Street Corridor, Mount Pleasant and many other parts of Washington. The Eastern Ave NW location is conveniently located to Downtown Silver Spring, Takoma Park MD, Silver Spring MD, Colesville, and other parts of Maryland as well as Northern Virginia and other parts of Virginia.