The Health Nut Blog

Would you want to be kissed if you have stinky breath? I should think not. Fresh breath is essential if you are going on a date. If you have bad breath or halitosis, you should clean your mouth out before going on that next blind date.

Maintaining the kissable freshness of breath is not always easy, especially if you are predisposed to halitosis. Some people are actually more prone to getting bad breath than others, particularly those who don’t practice regular dental hygiene. Failure to brush or floss consistently is the number one cause of bad breath in individuals all over the country.

This is when even flossing and brushing won't help you much. If you are taking drugs for certain internal illnesses like diabetes or liver disorders, your breath will ultimately turn foul. Smokers and habitual drinkers have this same high probability of developing bad breath.

These illnesses and unhealthy habits are not the causes of bad breath directly. What happens is because of these habits and disorders, oral bacteria thrive in the mouth and the back of the throat. These are the ones who produce the offensive smell that is pretty much like that of rotten eggs.

When you go out on a date, do whatever you need to have fresh breath throughout your romantic dinner. Therefore, it is crucial that you seek treatment for your bad breath as soon as you notice it. But what if you don’t know that you do have bad breath? Hopefully, at least one of your friends will step up and warn you, because surely, they will notice it before you do. You will probably agree that telling your friend that they have bad breath is not as easy as telling them that their shirt's on backwards or that their fly's open.

Because of this difficulty, there's a very real possibility that no one will tell you the truth and you'll excitedly head out to meet your date. When your date mysteriously makes an excuse not to kiss you or worse, takes off before you even finish dinner, you'll just be left wondering if you did or said anything wrong. Do you know that you are likely to be left alone due to your bad breath.

When you get home, you dejectedly replay the date in your mind, trying to figure out why your companion left, when things looked so promising at the start of the evening. In the face of such mysterious circumstances, you should definitely consider the possibility that you might actually have bad breath.

It's time to find out the truth once and for all. Very simply, this is what you have to do. Cup one of your hands, hold it in front of your mouth and exhale. After 3 seconds, smell your hand. Smelly eggs? There you have it. You weren't a lousy date after all. You just have bad breath.

Before you get mad at your friends for not telling you this right away, remember that it's really not a very simple task. If you reverse the situation and you know that your friend has bad breath, can you really just say straight out, "your breath stinks"? Perhaps, if you're that close. But in most situations, letting your friend know the smelly truth will take some amount of planning and waiting for the appropriate moment.

The best way of doing it would be the direct method, which as mentioned, will only work if you have the kind of closeness and familiarity that can tolerate such candor. Forget about having a relationship with someone if you are thinking of doing that to someone you just met. The embarrassment and awkwardness will just be too much to handle. To avoid upsetting your friend or making them feel uncomfortable, tell it to them privately and in as a nice manner as humanly possible.

If your type of relationship with them allows it, you can say it in a lighthearted way but let them know that you're serious. However, don’t give them the impression that you're judging them for it. If you don't mind, you can probably turn it into a private joke eventually. Afterwards, you can even help them in seeking treatment for their bad breath. If you find a way to let them know the truth in a nice way, it can even make for a stronger friendship.

There's no question that having bad breath can certainly dissuade some people from nurturing a close friendship with you. It will be harder as well to find and keep dates if you don’t remedy the situation quickly enough. For 90% of the time, brushing and flossing on a regular basis would do. Others may require more intensive solutions. At any rate, it is always good if you're surrounded with honest and candid friends who can warn you whenever your breath starts to stink again.

# posted by NeilG @ 3:07 AM