Treatment and Prevention-What YOU can do:

HYGIENE HYGIENE HYGIENE - You might be surprised how much keeping good oral hygiene can help keeping your breath fresh...

• Brush daily. Once in the morning and once in the evening. If possible, take a toothbrush with you into work and brush after eating. It's important to avoid brushing straight after you eat or drink (unless drinking good clean water), your saliva will protect your teeth from the bad effect acid brings, whereas brushing straight after eating will cause the acidic and sugary stuff to spread more evenly across your teeth and cause tooth erosion. You should aim to brush approximately 30 minutes after having a meal or a drink (again, with the exception of plain good old water drinking). Your toothbrush needs to be replaced with a new one every 2-4 months, choose a medium sized toothbrush with soft, multi-tufted synthetic bristles. Each time you brush, brush for a minimum of two minutes and don't forget to brush at the areas where your teeth meet your gums. 
• Keep your tongue clean. Ideally using a tongue cleaner, or a soft separate toothbrush that should be kept for the tongue only.  You should avoid scraping too much or too hard as it can damage your tongue. Also, you should avoid scraping the extreme back of the tongue as it can cause damage to your taste buds. You can try lightly cleaning with a little amount of mouth wash or a cleaning jell used on your tongue cleaner. Similar to your toothbrush, your tongue cleaner should be replaced every 2-4 months. IMPORTANT: Tongue should be cleaned prior to brushing your teeth to avoid dragging bacteria from the tongue into the teeth and gum area.
• Floss to remove particles of food and plaque that your toothbrush can't. Particles get stuck between teeth easily, and just as easily they can cause tooth-decay. Flossing is a mission, but it is worth it and should not be skipped

   

  on as brushing your teeth cleans only about 60% of your teeth surface. Flossing does not have to be twice a day, once a day should be enough.
• Use mouth-wash. It's fun and refreshing. It will effectively help in treating bad breath. Mouth-wash should not be used instead of brushing your teeth but should be used to end your oral hygiene routine. Choose an antiseptic mouth-wash that will treat the problem and kill germs that cause bad odor, instead of just temporarily masking the problematic breath. Ask your dentist which products are best suited for you as there are many mouth-rinse products violable on shelves today that claim to be helpful but are not actually antiseptic.

 

Visit your dentist regularly, at least twice a year. It is important to keep track of your mouth health and better to treat problems as soon as they occur than to let them grow bigger and worse (which will also increase costs of treatments).