What do your oral hygiene habits look like? Do you have bad breath?

Are you the kind of person who brushes their teeth once a day, flosses maybe once a month and uses mouthwash maybe every other day? Or are you the person who brushes their teeth at least two times a day, flosses every day and uses mouthwash once a day?

A study from the Journal of Natural Sciences wanted to “determine the prevalence of oral hygiene practices, smoking habits and halitosis among graduate dental students and correlating the oral hygiene practices, oral health conditions to the prevalence of self perceived oral malodor.” Dental conditions such as gingivitis, periodontal disease, gross carious lesions and poor oral hygiene are shown to cause bad breath. Gingivitis is a periodontal disease that is due to the inflammatory response to bacterial build up, known as plaque, around the gums. Gases being produced by bacteria cause bad breath from periodontal disease. The gases emitted are usually sulfur compounds like dimethyl sulfide, methyl mercaptan, hydrogen sulfide and allyl methyl sulfide.  Cavities also lead to bad breath. Cavities are permanently damaged areas of the surface of the teeth that turn into holes. These holes come from plaque build up on teeth and when it is not removed it turns into tartar to calculus. The acids in the plaque damage the enamel covering of the teeth thus causing cavities. Often times, treatment of the dental condition can help eliminate bad breath. An example of this is to remove decay from teeth and get them filled, also known as getting a cavity filled.

A major component to regular health is oral health. So why is it so hard to convince people to take better care of their teeth?  In this study, the undergraduate dental students completed a questionnaire that assessed habit of oral hygiene, such as “brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, use of mouthwash, self-perception of oral health, awareness of bad breath, timing of bad breath, caries and bleeding gums, dryness of mouth, smoking habits and tongue coating.”

Results found that the women had better oral hygiene habits as compared to men. Men were also shown to have a higher percentage of bad breath as compared to females. This study also found that students who brushed their teeth twice a day, changed their tooth brush after 3 months, used tongue cleaner and used mouth wash had better breath as compared to those who didn’t have as good of oral hygiene habits. Even though females were shown to have better oral hygiene habits, there is still room for improvement in oral health behavior.

Citations:

Setia S, Pannu P, Gambhir RS, Galhotra V, Ahluwalia P, Sofat A. Correlation of oral hygiene practices, smoking and oral health conditions with self perceived halitosis amongst undergradu- ate dental students. J Nat Sc Biol Med 2014;5:67-72.

Katz, D. (2014, January 1). GINGIVITIS. Retrieved January 1, 2014, from http://www.therabreath.com/gingivitis.html

Dental cavities. (2014, October 9). Retrieved October 11, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001055.htm