Various experts have identified halitosis as the most common mouth ailment. Generally known as mouth odour or bad breath, halitosis is an oral health condition in which one’s mouth emits an offensive odour.
Dr. Lojede Oluseye, a Dental Surgeon at National Hospital, Abuja, said that the three types of halitosis were halitophobia or psychological halitosis, physiological halitosis and real halitosis.
Oluseye said: “Halitophobia is a situation where the person doesn’t have halitosis, but due to some certain things that have been discovered, he just believes that he has it. That is why it is called psychological. It is seen mostly in people that are stressed up or those who lack confidence. It is very dangerous because it could lead to suicide.”
Oluseye said that physiological halitosis, which affected virtually everyone, was due to the habit of not brushing the teeth before going to bed.
He said: “The bacteria in the mouth take care of the remnant food deposits in the mouth and those activities produce mouth odour. So, everybody has that condition, but when you wake up in the morning and you brush your teeth, it is gone.”
For real halitosis or mouth odour, Oluseye said that its origin could either be local or systemic. He said: “The local causes are usually within the mouth. Here, the dentist examines you and is able to see it by checking the mouth for plaque or calculus or if there are cavities in your mouth. “What the plaque does is that it hangs between the teeth and the gum. These are the bacteria colony that takes a bit of the food eaten and sticks it to the teeth. This could cause irritation to the gum and when you are brushing you see traces of blood; this will cause some foul odour. If that is discovered to be the cause of a patient’s halitosis, we scrape the teeth to remove the plaque, polish the teeth and probably put the patient on some medication. If yours is caused by cavities, once the tooth is straightened and refilled and you improve your oral hygiene, the halitosis should go.”
On the other hand, Oluseye said that systemic halitosis involved the malfunction of some parts of the body or the entire body system. He added: “If a patient has long standing catarrh or cold or blocked nostrils, he or she has what we call natural rhinitis. Other systemic causes are that in some patients, their blood reagents and urea level could go high and the patient may have renal problems, causing the kidney not to filtrate well. By this, the urea level is bound to go up and some of them will escape to the chest and from the chest to the nose.”
Nevertheless, Oluseye stressed that halitosis was not hereditary or caused by fasting. Fasting has nothing to do with mouth odour but I’ve discovered that some people believe that they shouldn’t brush their mouths during fasting and this is wrong.”
Oluseye, nonetheless, noted that there were kinds of food which could cause mouth odour, adding that there were other foods that could promote the cleansing of the mouth. He said: “When you eat fruits, the fibre does some kind of cleansing. If you check people’s mouth, it’s very easy to know what side the person chews with. This is because if you are a one-sided chewer, the side you chew with is often cleaner than the other side. Therefore, we encourage people to eat fibrous fruits and not allow the blender to do it all for them. Generally, you are supposed to see your dentist once in six months. Don’t ever believe that you have a clean or healthy mouth until a dentist says you do. Ideally, once a child starts having teeth, from six months, he is a candidate for a dental check-up.”
Besides, Dr. Machu Abraham, the Chief Executive Officer of Graceland Oral Health and Medical Care Initiative, said that the common symptoms of halitosis were bad smell, bad taste or taste changes, among others. Abraham said: “In most cases, halitosis originates from the gum and tongue. The odour is caused by bacteria from the decay of food particles, other debris in the mouth and poor hygiene. The decayed debris produces a sulphur compound that causes an unpleasant odour.”
Abraham, nonetheless, said that drugs, gum diseases, heavy metal accumulation, liver diseases, poor diet, poor dental hygiene, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption and tooth decay were other causes of halitosis. He, however, noted that many people with halitosis were not even aware that they had the condition. He said: “It is easy to diagnose bad breath. You can lick your finger, let it dry for a few seconds and smell the area or cup your breath.”
All the same, Abraham said that daily intake of plenty water would encourage saliva production which would, in turn, control mouth odour. “One should also get sufficient sunlight, exercise and sleep as well as seek practical ways to relax and resolve stressful conditions as measures to combat bad breath,” he added.
Dr. Bimpe Adebiyi, the Director, Dentistry Division of the Federal Ministry of Health, said that people should form the habit of brushing their mouth twice daily – before breakfast and before going to bed. Adebiyi also advocated the use of dental floss, instead of toothpick, to remove particles from the teeth.
She said: “Dental floss is like a thread, usually medicated. It is applied in between the teeth and it works like a magnet because it usually comes out of the teeth with the food particles. Dentists encourage dental flossing above tooth picking because sometimes a tooth pick pushes whatever you want to remove from the teeth into the gum, thereby injuring it and bleeding occurs.”
All in all, dental experts insist that the most potent way of guarding against mouth odour is to maintain sound oral hygiene. “The mouth should be kept clean at all times,” they add.
NAN Features.
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