Recomendations ?????!
Question: im looking for a mouthwash that will help me with my bad breath. I've heard that listerine short term does help with your breath but you become dependant and long term affect are BAD BREATH period. i was wondering if anyone had any recomendations on mouthwash
Answers: im looking for a mouthwash that will help me with my bad breath. I've heard that listerine short term does help with your breath but you become dependant and long term affect are BAD BREATH period. i was wondering if anyone had any recomendations on mouthwash
As some have pointed out before - flossing is the biggest help you can do here - when you floss your teeth - you will notice that the floss you've used will stink! It's from rotting food that is stuck in between your teeth. Also - as was mentioned - cleaning your tongue. Brushing your tongue is good and there are also tongue scrapers. They remove large amounts of 'tongue goop' that blanket your tongue and taste and smell icky.
The other cause of bad breath is smell coming from your stomach. Often it's a bacteria - from foods you have eaten - it's the smell of them being broken down, it can be the smell of an infection - always good to get that checked out by a doctor.
Mouth washes just mask the smell - they don't "fix" the problem - I believe the "dependent" part is that it can make your mouth stop producing some of the enzymes they need to produce to help your breath. I can't remember precisely but there was something like that. It kills bacteria - both good and bad - and that's the problem I think. You need good bacterias to digest foods and do other jobs they were meant to do -- we want to kill the bad bacteria - but mouthwashes are blind and just kill them all. So - over use of them can leave your mouth out of balance.
Kind of like cleaning your fish tank too well will make it turn a lovely deep shade of green!
As you noted mouthwash is only a temporary solution for bad breath. Good brushing and flossing are important. Brushing the surface of the tongue can help. If you are not a regular flosser, you may notice some bleeding the first 2 or 3 times. It is normal and will go away. The bleeding is actually a sign that your gums are in poor shape.
I have never heard of dependency on mouthwash.
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I have found that flossing makes a HUGE difference in my breath. Try flossing and then I sometimes use scope to make my mouth feel super clean!
If your breath is that bad you should have your gums checked by a dental professional.