How can you prevent bad breath? This has probably been asked more than a dozen times each day in thousands of dental offices across the country. Halitosis, or commonly known as bad breath, is a real oral health condition that is severe for many people and not just a simple case of a person having a morning breath. At least with morning breath you can easily get rid of it by brushing your teeth. Not the same with halitosis. Because such a problem persists throughout the day, a person’s social life takes a bit of downturn each time he tries to talk up close and personal to another person.

For dentists like Dr. Jonathan Hartley, dealing with this problem has become a common thing. They say that usually the real cause of the bad breath is poor oral hygiene. It is as simple as people not brushing their teeth as often as they should, which is to say at least twice a day or preferably after every meal. Some people just tend to outgrow and forget the lessons imbibed to them by their parents to always brush their teeth. We can blame it to our fast paced lifestyle or to people simply becoming too lazy to brush. But the simple idea here is that most bad breath cases can be solved if people will just brush more often.

So is there a treatment for bad breath? how can we get rid of such an unpleasant odor when sometimes brushing alone may not be enough? Here are some dentist recommended solutions we can try at home.

But first and foremost you must make sure that you do not have any lingering dental problems especially tooth decay. A decaying tooth can be the root cause of your bad breath problems. Dr. Jonathan Hartley suggests that you first have your dental problems treated to see if these are the real cause of your bad breath.

If you are thinking that a mouth rinse can help solve your bad breath problem, then going natural is a good option for you. There are certain natural oils that can do the trick such as peppermint and tea tree oils. Just pour a few drops on your mouth, preferably your tongue and then gargle. If you want a mouth rinse that is store-bought, choose one that has these two oils as part of its ingredients.

Still on the topic of mouthwash, you can create your own by mixing half part hydrogen peroxide to half part water. This solution will help kill the bacteria that cause bad breath.

Perhaps you have a dry mouth as this can also be the culprit. Just make sure that you drink plenty of water and in increased intervals to keep your mouth wet. You can also chew on gum to keep the saliva flowing.

Using breath fresheners, while effective, are not really considered as permanent solutions. These only temporarily get rid of your bad breath and is often good for just a couple of hours, after which you need to re-apply your freshener. The same goes with mints. These items are not the long term solutions for any serious bad breath problem.

These are just some of the home remedies that we can follow to get rid of bad breath. However, most dentists like Dr. Jonathan Hartley, they suggest that we visit them more regularly. This way, they can easily detect if we are prone to bad breath or any other dental problems and give us treatment and proper advice.