Bad breath
Most people worry about having bad breath, which also known as halitosis, as shown by the huge sales of breath fresheners. However, it is not easy to tell whether you have it or not. There is actually a psychological condition called delusion of halitosis or halitophobia, in which people have an unshakeable belief that their breath smells, although in fact it does not. Their lives are totally dominated by their 'bad breath' and they are not amenable to reason.
Written by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Edited by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Last updated:
Friday, February 12th 2010
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Comments on this article
Posted by Optional on 25/02/2010 at 07:00:32 am
Why doesn't anyone mentions tonsil stones when giving bad breath advise. I bet you'll find that alot more people have bad breath due to these than the usual oral hygiene problems.
Posted by mike smith on 19/11/2009 at 06:04:00 pm
my breath stinks worse than anything you may probably think of. Every dental technique has been tried to tackle the problem without any success and now i believe this problem of mine has almost nothing to do with my dental hygien but has a lot to do with me eating in my dreams every night and waking up cnstipated. Every time i do self insepection e.g. gargling, some back granuels or yellow little solid fats come out no matter how well i might have cleaned my teeth. sometimes i drink lots of water to clean the food pipe before sleep or only eat breakfast for the day the but the problem still remains. My biggest worry is that i can only smell this undescribable smell if and only if i have had the eating dream regardless of any attempt that i may have made to fight the bad smell. Please help
Posted by Emily.s. on 21/09/2009 at 10:42:00 am
i have really bad breath i thought maybe i had halitosis but it really does smell it always smells like morning breath and sometimes of poo i brush my teeth about4 times a day nd it still smells even my boyfriend dont want to kiss me what shall i do? help me please i want to be able to smell my own breath without heaving...
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Bad breath
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Fascinating facts
Many chemicals cause the smell in bad breath including hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan and putrescine.
Garlic rubbed into the soles of the feet can be detected later in the breath
Women clean their teeth more often than men - 76% of women brush their teeth at least once a day, but only 58% of men do (British Dental Association)
Politicians, lawyers, judges and teachers have the worst breath - they talk a lot, so their mouths dry out (Professor M Rosenberg)
Shakespeare mentions breath smell - sweet or stinking - more than 100 times. In his day, most people had bad breath (Professor M Rosenberg)
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