Transcripts

Dr. Herbert Katz:
About a third of the population has bad breath severe enough where they seek assistance from their physician, their dentist or a pharmacist.

Dentist Dr. Harold Katz, founder of the California Breath Clinics…

Many people for a number of years thought that bad breath comes from the digestive system, from the stomach - and that's an unfortunate myth. Almost all bad breath comes from bacteria, which live within the back of the tongue, the throat and tonsil area. These are bacteria you're suppose to have, but under certain conditions (particularly when your mouth is dry) they start to over-produce what are called volatile sulfur compounds. But, for certain people that concentration is severe enough where someone next to them on a plane or at school can smell that.

Ironically, Dr. Katz says that many of the products that are suppose to help the problem actually make it worse.

Most commercial mouthwash is full of alcohol. Alcohol makes the mouth very dry - any time your mouth is more dry, your breath will become worse. So, by overdoing mouthwashes you're actually making your breath worse instead of better.

And by the way, blowing into your hand and smelling is a lousy way to test for your own bad breath.

It's a great way to smell your hand but there's a process in your brain called acclamation where you get used to your own odor. So a simple way to test it is to actually lick the back of your hand and let that dry for a few seconds and then smell that.

You can link to Dr. Katz's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.