Teeth whitening can eliminate bad breath, keep dates from getting turned off

While there are untold tips for how to get a date, it's harder to find advice on how to stay dateless. If you'd like some professional advice, here it is: For those who prefer to eat dinner alone, one of the best ways to ensure it is to give up your teeth whitening products.

That's because, according to a new poll, yellow teeth and bad breath are two of the biggest turn-offs around.

Survey says...

In a survey conducted by an oral health products manufacturer, adults were asked about the most attractive and repulsive personal habits of dates they'd had. Bad breath led the way, with 85 percent of respondents saying they'd smelled (or gagged on) a date's halitosis.

In all, four out of five people said that, if asked for a second date, they'd turn someone down because of their oral odor.

Close behind bad breath were body odor and yellow teeth. According to the lifestyle magazine Female First, these were the second- and third-most common turn-offs. The majority of folks said that, if presented with BO or teeth so yellow they could slow traffic, they'd head for the hills before asking the same date out again.

The moral of the story

Rather than risk putting a date off his or her dinner, use specialty breath freshening products - and, while you're at it, don't forget to shower. Teeth whitening kits (the good tray-and-gel kind) do double duty by both neutralizing halitosis and evenly brightening your teeth. Avoid whitening strips, since these don't get between teeth and can leave your pearly whites grouted with yellow.

So, the next time you're facing a first date, make things easy on yourself by freshening up beforehand with a specialty teeth whitener.