Bad breath could be described as a disease with the only symptom being an offensive odor. However bad breath is not contagious. You cannot cough on someone and give them bad breath. However, it is certainly possible to transfer bacteria to another person by kissing them. But these bacteria would need to be transferred to a receptive bad breath environment. In other words, quite possibly you already have bad breath and did not realize it. Bacteria passed to a non receptive mouth (one that did not have an environment for anaerobic bacteria) would not enable the bacteria to colonize. In other words if you do not have a bad breath problem, you are unlikely to catch one by kissing a person with bad breath.

2. My floss smells, is this bad breath?

Bad Breath bacteria live all through the mouth, tongue, teeth and gums, throat and nasal areas. Therefore people that floss infrequently will have a buildup of these smelly anaerobic bacteria and their sulphur compounds trapped in the biofilm below the gums. But this amount of gum bacteria is not enough to cause bad breath, but rather a bad taste. Bad breath needs to come from a larger source of bacteria (that collected on the back of the tongue and throat). When you exhale, you blow out the sulphur compounds that have collected in the throat and tongue area. The exception to this, would be if you have bleeding gums when you floss your teeth as well as floss smells. This combination would indicate a change of mouth bacteria that would cause bad breath.

3. Bad Breath - are there any home remedies?

I don't know of any home products that can rid you of bad breath. What is known is that people that are fit and healthy suffer less from bad breath. This could be that their metabolism is in balance and does not allow the anaerobic bacteria to get out of hand. People that are mobile and active have less problems. People that do not go on high protein fad diets, or protein shakes have less bad breath problems. People that do not need to take medicines are better off as they do not get dry mouth.

4. Why don't "over the counter" mouthwash stop bad breath?

Mouthwash to stop bad breath is intrinsically different to those marketable for fresh breath. Bad breath mouthwash needs to be manufactured at neutral pH and with out alcohol (ethanol). This is an expensive manufacturing process, so is not often tackled by the major companies. Also eliminating bad breath, takes more than just a mouthwash. It takes a system that can remove biofilms from many areas such as teeth, gums, tongue, throat and nose. The big companies do not see this as profitable, when it is easier to churn out another mouthwash. Treating bad breath is a lot about education, so that each person can identify their own causes and treatments. At the Australian Breath Clinic we have a simple questionaire that helps us identify the causes of your problem. If you cannot visit our clinic, we are more than happy to email the quiz to you, and then offer you a solution on return of the completed questionaire.

Bad Breath smell is of fecal odor - do I have a bowel problem Bacteria that live in the bowels and produce fecal smells, have cousins that have similar metabolic pathways, that live in the mouth. So mouth bacteria can cause fecal smells. It is just the method of metabolism. It is the same principle why mouth bacteria can make a "rotten egg gas" smell. It doesn't mean you ate eggs for lunch. It is the bacterial breakdown method.

5. Is a tongue coating normal?

This is a totally individual thing. Tongue coating is a combination of saliva, bacteria, and by product. For hygiene purposes you should clean your tongue every day (using our recommended cleaning method). In a bad breath sufferer, the bacteria in the tongue coating is an accumulation of anaerobic bacteria and sulphur compounds that cause bad breath. So for bad breath patients, tongue coating is not good. For people with fresh breath, it is a different accumulation of bacteria, so it probably is not as bad.

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