Agreed, no one likes bad breath except maybe our dogs. We can hardly tolerate our dog’s bad breath but we do because there is little they can do about it. When family and friends have bad breath, we usually take action. That could be simply telling them “You have bad breath. Go brush our teeth”, or even worse, we avoid them, entirely.
Bad breath creates a sense of persecution and isolation in those with it. Ironically, we all have it, either sporadically or chronically. In Reuters, it was reported that Christine Wu, a University of Illinois researcher at Chicago’s College of Dentistry, stated “In dental research, bad breath is neglected because it is not a disease that will kill people.” This does bring up a tangential aspect to bad breath. Bad breath is often a sign of disease. When the bacterial balance in your body (also your mouth, typically the tongue) is out-of-synch, so to speak, it is called Dysbiosis or dysbacteriosis) a term for a microbial imbalance. So even though bad breath can not directly kill you it is can be the oral health “canary in the coal mine”, so we need to pay attention to this.
It is during this period of oral Dysbiosis that greater amounts of bacterial activity create volatile sulfur products resulting in bad breath, also called Halitosis. It is now during halitosis we start to notice those with bad breath and speak out or avoid these individuals. When bad breath individuals are told about their problem or avoided, they “feel” it and not in a good way.
It is now, that many bad breath individuals develop halitophobia where they think they have halitosis or imagine huge bad breath problems spiraling out of reality. In the medical psychological profession, halitophobia can be considered an obsessive compulsive disorder. There are documented suicide cases in Japan because some typecast themselves as a “smelly” person.
In the Niger Medical Journal (2011), it was noted that bad breath is an embarrassing and frustrating concern that can lead to social isolation, divorce, suicidal thoughts and even suicide.
It was noted in a social media post “…tried everything for this condition to no avail. Attempted suicide once this year all thanks to it. I've lost all hope…”. Another post read “…I’ve left jobs because of my breath….I just can’t kick it. Ruined my 20s. I’m 33 now”. Yet another post reads “… feeling the same. Its almost a year since I quit my job. Already tried consulting dentist, ENTs, and gastro but to no avail.…I have isolated myself from my friends. I’m getting suicidal thoughts also :( .”
As described, the professional opinions about the affects of bad breath are enormous. One of the earliest pioneers in bad breath research stated that smelly breath is more than just embarrassing. It can break up marriages, end friendships, and even drive people to suicide. Today, we see this.
The impact of bad breath is huge because it negatively affects our daily life activities of communicating with others, our self-esteem, self-confidence, our social and intimate relationships of dating and marriage, employment and career opportunities. Ultimately, bad breath is embarrassing inhibiting our social interaction that decreases the quality of life as an embarrassment for family and friends of those afflicted with halitosis. Even though bad breath does not kill you, we see that it can drive some to suicide…the ugly side of bad breath.
Consider every effort to help neutralize bad breath. One such effort is a new anti-bad breath toothbrush, the neutralizerPLUS+. That along with improved oral hygiene it will help reduce and/or stop bad breath and it’s negative affects in our lives. Follow my bad breath blog. BETTER BREATH4BETTER HEALTH: https://www.neutralizerplus.com/blog