Contacts: Bad Breath - is it contagious?
Bad breath is not contagious. It is caused by common body bacteria breaking down proteins in the mouth for metabolism. You cannot cough on someone and give them bad breath. However, it is certainly possible to transfer bacteria to another person by kissing them. But these bacteria would need to be transferred to a receptive bad breath environment. In other words, quite possibly you already have bad breath and did not realise it. Bacteria passed to a non receptive mouth (one that did not have an environment for anaerobic bacteria) would not enable the bacteria to colonise. In other words if you do not have a bad breath problem, you are unlikely to catch one by kissing a person with bad breath.
My floss smells, is this bad breath?
Bad Breath bacteria live all through the mouth, throat and nasal areas, as well as the gums. Therefore people that floss infrequently will have a buildup of these smelly anaerobic bacteria and their sulphur compounds trapped in the biofilm below the gums. But this amount of gum bacteria is not enough to cause bad breath, but rather a bad taste. Bad breath needs to come from a larger source of bacteria (that collected on the back of the tongue and throat). When you exhale, you blow out the sulphur compounds that have collected in the throat and tongue area.
Bad Breath - are there any home remedies ?
I don't know of any home products that can rid you of bad breath. What is known is that people that are fit and healthy suffer less from bad breath. This could be that their metabolism is in balance and does not allow the anaerobic bacteria to get out of hand. People that are mobile and active have less problems. People that do not go on high protein fad diets, or protein shakes have less bad breath problems. People that do not need to take medicines are better off as they do not get dry mouth.
Why don't "over the counter" mouthwash stop bad breath?
Up until our science was established, the accepted approach for the treatment of bad breath was to kill the bacteria that cause the problem. This is exactly what commercial mouthwash is designed to do, and in fact many mouthwash are registered with that particular claim. One of the ways commercial mouthwash kills bacteria is by the alcohol (ethanol) in the mouthwash mix. The problem is that the bacteria being killed by the mouthwash, are part of your normal mouth bacterial makeup. Granted they are in excess usually, and this is why they cause the problem. But they are still normal body bacteria and as such are not a mouth infection. Removing them so haphazardly can result in an unforseen change of mouth environment. The result will be different each time you use the commercial mouthwash. The variance makes it impossible to get a good and healthy mix of the right bacteria in your mouth to have fresh breath. In fact overuse of strong mouthwash can lead to an overgrowth of the Candida fungus. This may occur if the Candida (a normal mouth occupant in small numbers) is not able to be kept in check by the other mouth bacteria.
Also eliminating bad breath, takes more than just a mouthwash. It takes a system that can remove coatings from many areas such as teeth, gums, tongue, throat and nose. Treating bad breath is a lot about education, so that each person can identify their own causes and treatments. At the Dr Speiser's Australian Breath Clinic we have a simple questionaire that helps us identify the causes of your problem. If you cannot visit our clinic, we are more than happy to email the quiz to you, so that you can learn further about your problem.
Bad Breath smell is of fecal odour - do I have a bowel problem?
Bacteria that live in the bowels and produce fecal smells, have cousins that have similar metabolic pathways, that live in the mouth. So mouth bacteria can cause fecal smells. It is just the method of metabolism. It is the same principle why mouth bacteria can make a "rotten egg gas" smell. It doesn't mean you ate eggs for lunch. It is the bacterial breakdown method.
Is a tongue coating normal?
This is a totally individual thing. Tongue coating is a combination of saliva, bacteria, and by product. For hygiene purposes you should clean your tongue every day (using our recommended cleaning method). In a bad breath sufferer, the bacteria in the tongue coating is an accumulation of anaerobic bacteria and sulphur compounds that cause bad breath. So for bad breath patients, tongue coating is not good. For people with fresh breath, it is a different accumulation of bacteria, so it probably is not as bad.
What you can say, is that coating on the front two thirds of the tongue should be kept to a minimum and is usually easy to clean away. However coating on the back third of the tongue, past the gag reflex, is not as easy to maintain. Coating in this area is commonly seen in patients with post nasal drip.
