health}
breath
Ew, your breath s t in k s !
Y2K, Breath Stuff, and Dr. Seuss by Dr. John F. Miller DDS
It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years since entering the new millennium and surviving the mild panic associated with Y2K. For those needing a refresher, Y2K posed a potential computer programming glitch based on the abbreviated year turning from 99 to 00. The fear was this glitch would cause worldwide computer systems to fail. We were warned of the collapse of financial institutions, the electrical grid, etc., with inevitable riots and looting to follow. As an 18 year-old college freshman without a penny to my name, I didn’t get too worked up about it. I did feel an intense energy for life however as I introduced myself to the new millennium. If New Year’s is our annual reset button, how significant is the New Millennium, I thought. Instead of taking life lessons learned from one year and carrying them over to the New Year, I took 18 years of life lessons and hit reset. Now, one of those life lessons was the importance of Good Breath if I wanted the best chance of gaining the favor of the opposite sex.
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oman.com
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was your normal 14-year-old boy; in other words I was girl crazy, and my oral hygiene could use some improvement (standard male adolescent warning label). I was in the school gymnasium after the Pep Rally for the Homecoming football game and I approached a certain young lady and gave her my best line like, “so... do you like The Simpsons or...whatever?” The response I got was, “ew, your breath stinks.” Two Emotions: 1) Mortified!! and 2) Never Again!! Instantaneous Oral Hygiene Wizard Status. So now that the cat’s out of the bag let’s talk about breath: the good, the bad, and the really bad. As an oral health provider I can identify different types of oral disease blindfolded. Gum disease has it’s own scent, significant tooth decay presents with it’s own unique bouquet, and infected teeth their own flavor. I’m reminded of this on every crowded elevator... yep. Fortunately, especially among the lovely devotees of 406 Woman magazine, these are the exception rather than the rule. So let’s focus on the rule.
Morning Breath?
Show me someone who claims they don’t have bad morning breath and I’ll show you a liar. The key to understanding why our breath smells first thing in the morning is to first understand why it doesn’t smell the rest of the time. As we go about our usual daylight business, bacteria are at work breaking down all the amino acids, proteins, and other chemicals left behind in our mouths from our last meal. This process produces volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) like hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, and methyl mercapatan, which are responsible for the funk. In our waking hours, our own saliva washes away the bacteria before they can do their smelly damage; when we fall asleep, our saliva production calls it a night, too. In the absence of much saliva, the VSC-causing bacteria run wild, and the sulfuric compounds build up until their grand unveiling in the morning. It’s a simple equation—mouth plus bacteria minus saliva equals yuck—but the bad news is