Megan was horrified to call our Glendale dental office because she was so embarrassed about her dental problem—she was experiencing chronic bad breath! Although Megan didn’t want to even say the words “bad breath” to our dental team, she had nothing to fear, bad breath is a very common problem for adult patients, and with a little bit of extra care and preventative maintenance you can reclaim your healthy mouth!
Now when we spoke to Megan we found out that she was brushing and flossing twice a day as recommended. She was also occasionally using a mouthwash to increase her ability to keep harmful oral bacteria at bay. She was, however, also dealing with a number of life changes that were contributing to her bad breath.
For example, Megan was working on a big and important project at work. This project gave her a chance to prove herself and show what an excellent worker she was, but it was also, understandably, making her feel quite stressed out. Stress can actually contribute to bad breath. When you’re stressed you may experience more dry mouth. Dry mouth in turn leads to bad breath, because natural saliva production is incredibly important for neutralizing oral bacteria.
Additionally, Megan had started a new diet about five weeks before she came in to our office. Now there’s nothing wrong with making healthy lifestyle changes, like eating well and exercising regularly, but Megan’s diet had unfortunately led to her skipping a few meals here and there. Again, skipping meals decreases saliva production and increases the likelihood that you’ll experience bad breath.
We got Megan off to a great start with a thorough professional cleaning. After finding that she didn’t have any dental cavities, we explained to her that stress and skipping meals could be contributing to her bad breath.
Megan started using an antimicrobial mouthwash everyday. She also made sure to eat regularly (though she stuck to her new diet routine—she just made sure not to skip meals) and she started carrying a water bottle so that she could drink water throughout the day.
With these simple changes Megan saw remarkable results and soon felt much more comfortable striking up conversations and smiling broadly! Give our office a call if you’d like more information about combating bad breath, or if you’d like to schedule an appointment with our Glendale dentist.