Your Patient’s Bad Breath is Likely Caused by a Common Bacteria

Goodbye, Halitosis!

Your Patient’s Bad Breath is Likely Caused by a Common Bacteria

The human mouth is filled with hundreds of bacteria. Many of those bacteria are simply hanging out in the mouth because it’s a nice dark and wet place to live. A few of those bacteria, however, create a waste product called “volatile sulfur compounds” (VSCs) – the root cause of many cases of halitosis (bad breath).

The term “volatile” simply describes the fact that these compounds evaporate readily, even at normal temperatures. The extreme volatility of VSCs explains how these compounds have the ability to offend those around us, instantly.

A person’s mouth is home to  hundreds of different species of bacteria. And on going in our mouth, at all times, is a constant battle for living space between the types of bacteria which do create waste products that cause bad breath and those that don’t. And it is the precise balance between the relative numbers of these two different types of bacteria that will ultimately determine the quality of a person’s breath.

An accumulation of dental plaque creates the perfect conditions for VSC-causing bacteria to thrive on the surfaces of teeth and deep below the gum line. As more and more plaque builds up in a person’s mouth, the bacteria that cause bad breath gain available living space and proliferate, thus increasing the level of odor causing compounds that escape with each breath that is exhaled.

If brushing and flossing alone were enough to combat these VSC-causing bacteria, those who have pretty good dental habits should always have good breath. But bad breath is obviously not always the result of poor dental hygiene, and if antibacterial mouthwashes were the answer, then the same would be true – no one would ever have bad breath.

The true key to eliminating halitosis is to crowd out those VSC-causing bacteria. Probiotic oral care bacteria compete with the bacteria responsible for bad breath. By consuming the same nutrients as the bad-breath-causing bacteria and fighting with them for space on the surfaces of teeth and below the gum line, probiotics crowd out the smelly bacteria and make breath fresh around the clock.