Bad Breath Cures

Estimates have it that more than 80 million people suffer from chronic halitosis -- that's the medical term for bad breath, by the way.

That's probably more than any of us had originally thought have used these products like religious icons. That either tells us something about the power of advertising or our fear of social rejection!

Think about this: chronic, continued, persistent bad breath may the result of a late stage liver disease. Then again, you can get bad breath as a result of developing a simple sinus infection.

The problem is that while you're experiencing your unpleasant mouth breath, you really have little clue what the actual cause is. This is especially true when it comes to chronic bad breath. Short-term or acute bad breath can usually be detected with just a little common sense on your part.

And here are four very easy methods to discovering just this.

Lick the back of your hand. (Yeah, you may, by the way, want to do this when no one is looking!) Allow a few seconds for it to dry. Then smell it. If it smells, you have what some refer to as a breath disorder.

Floss quickly a small area of your mouth. Smell the floss. Does it smell? If it does, you've got bad breath.

Here is a method that doesn't involve smelling. It just requires you to grab the tip of your tongue. Not an extremely easy task. Look in the mirror and grab the tip of your tongue, preferably with a washcloth.

Pull the tongue as far as you can. If you can see the very back of your tongue and its whitish looking, this too may be a signal of bad breath.

Okay, so this next technique is really cheating in a way. It involves another person. But if you decide to use this one approach someone you trust and is quite gentle with words. Ask him --several times throughout the day -- if your breath smells.