Mouth breathing may cause or worsen halitosis

When you were a child, your parents may have reminded you to chew with your mouth closed, but did they ever ask you to breathe with your trap shut? If so, you know what mouth breathing is, and a recent study published in the journal Clinics confirmed that it can lead to bad breath.

Researchers from the Universidade Nove de Julho in Sao Paulo, Brazil, came to this conclusion after measuring the oral odor levels of 55 children between the ages of 3 and 14. More than three-quarters of the participants had some level of halitosis, and those who were mouth breathers were much more likely to have rank breath.

So what is the lesson? First, it is important to learn to breathe with one's mouth open, although this is not always possible. When you sleep or exercise, oftentimes your mouth needs to be open. Therefore, secondly, extended mouth breathing should be followed by a vigorous rinse with a specialty breath freshener.

Keeping your mouth closed keeps your tongue and palate moist, preventing overgrowth of oral bacteria. However, sometimes mouth breathing is a must, and so specialty breath fresheners should be considered, too.