Bad breath, also known as halitosis or breath malordor, is embarrassing. But instead of letting it cripple your social life, it is a condition which the dentist can actually address. After one of our bad breath treatments, you will no longer have to feel self-conscious about your breath when talking to people.
We are the first breath clinic in Asia to work with Dr Kartz of the California Breath Clinic, which utilizes a tried-and-tested approach in managing bad breath.
What causes bad breath?
There are many possible causes of bad breath, but most times it is caused by a group of anaerobic sulphur-producing bacteria that live below the surface of our tongue, in the throat and often in the tonsils. These bacteria produce odorous Volatile Sulphur compounds (VSCs) as a reaction to changes in their environment. You may experience sour, bitter or metallic tastes when this occurs, as well as a change in taste sensation.
In our clinic, we use a halimeter machine, which measures the concentration of the VSCs, to measure the severity of bad breath.
Part of the breath analysis includes a detailed medical and dental history, followed by a thorough oral examination to find out the possible cause of bad breath.
|Breath test with Halimeter||Organoleptic Breath Test|
SOME FACTS ABOUT BAD BREATH
Bad Breath does not mean you have poor oral hygiene
People always relate bad breath with a poor oral hygiene. In actual fact, you can still be suffering from bad breath problems even with a good oral hygiene. If you have been regular to the dentist and are already brushing 2-3 times a day and are still experiencing bad breath issues, the problem probably does not lie with your brushing habits. Other factors like dry mouth, stress, post nasal drip, hormonal factors etc. could be contributing. Also, avoid using oral hygiene products with detergents or alcohol as using them frequently can actually make a bad breath problem worse.
Does Bad Breath come from other part of the body as well?
Besides the mouth, bad breath could also be originated from other parts of the body. For examples are certain condition of the stomach, liver and kidneys problems can contribute to halitosis. However, systemic causes of bad breath are rare, 85% of the time, bad breath originates from the mouth.
If your mouth tastes minty, it must smell good. Right? WRONG!
Most gums, mints and mouthwashes that have a minty taste are merely masking the odours of the sulphur compounds. To make matters worse, the sugars in most mints and gums can actually cause the bacteria to multiply faster. To effectively stop bad breath, besides neutralising the sulphur compounds, you must also suppress the growth of the anaerobic bacteria.