Fresh Breath Programs

Chronic Bad breath (halitosis) is a serious social problem. All one has to do is look at the millions of dollars a year spent on various mouth washes, flavouring agents, mints and other masking substances to see just how important fresh breath is to people. Unfortunately most of these dollars are wasted as the cover up only lasts for a short time and never really address the real cause of the bad breath.

Sadly many millions of Australians are unaware of their offending breath until somebody has the courage to tell them. Cupping your hands over your mouth and sniffing the air that you breathe out won’t tell you if your breath is bad.

Halitosis is an embarrassing problem that impacts negatively on a person’s life and can be truly demoralising.

Halitosis knows no boundaries when it comes to age, sex, race or Socio-economic levels.

It was once thought that bad breath comes from the stomach but we now know that 85% to 90% of the bad breath conditions originate in the mouth.

The good news is that at Island Dental we can analyse the source of your bad breath and have highly effective treatments to prevent this embarrassing problem.

SELF TEST FOR BAD BREATH

If you are uncertain whether you are suffering from halitosis here are some self-tests that may help you find out...

• Pull your tongue forward using the thumb and index finger of your other hand. Use your other hand to wipe the back of your tongue for about 15 seconds with a clean cotton ball. Wait a few minutes, then sniff the cotton ball; if it smells bad, this could mean you have bad breath.
• Clean between a few of your back teeth with apiece of unflavoured dental floss. Again, wait a few minutes then sniff the floss. It’s likely that this is what your breath smells like.
• Do you frequently have a bad taste in your mouth? This is another sign of halitosis.
• Someone has offered you mints or chewing gum.
• People step back from you when you are talking or they avoid direct contract with you.
• You experience a dry mouth or thick saliva on a regular basis and can’t seem to improve the condition
• Ask for a truthful answer from a trusted friend or family member. Yes, this can be embarrassing, but if you do have a persistent bad breath, its definitely better to know about it so you can do something to solve the problem.

None of these tests are foolproof. To find out definitely if your breathe has an offensive odour you will need to see us for an examination and if you do we can determine the source of the breath problem and we can recommend specific products and techniques to help your fresh breath problem.