Although it is considered common sense, let's begin with a quick definition of what bad breath is. Bad breath, also known as halitosis, is breath that contains unpleasant odor. This odor can either be permanent or it may be triggered by various reasons during various periods of time.

For the majority of the patients, bad breath is caused by millions of bacteria that live inside the mouth. Those bacteria inhibit all the oral area but most of them live on the back of our tongue. Our mouth provides a warm, moist environment; those are the perfect conditions for the bacteria to grow and multiply.

In fact, bad breath can be something as simple as what we call "morning mouth" or it can be something more serious which has to with your health. For most of the times however, it's not related to a health problem; statistics say that for the 80% of the cases, it's just something inside our mouth that's causing it.

Morning mouth is caused because during the night, saliva in your mouth diminishes. As that happens, dead cells inside your mouth will stick on your tongue. In turn, bacteria will eat those dead cells and then expel compounds with an awful odor (disgusting, isn't it?). That's pretty much the whole story behind the "morning mouth" bad breath.

Another reason can be poor dental hygiene. If you don't brush your teeth frequently enough it is almost guaranteed that you will have a bad breath at some point.

In some cases, oral infections or a bad tooth can be the reason of a really bad breath. In those cases it would be best to visit your doctor/dentist. You could always use some home-made, old remedies but they are not guaranteed to be effective in your situation. Apart from those infections, more serious health problems such as diabetes, liver disease, lung disease etc. can be the cause of a very stinky breath.

Finally, everybody knows that external agents such as garlic, onions, coffee and tobacco can cause your breath to smell bad.

Hopefully, now that we have identified the main causes of bad breath, you will quickly know where to focus when the time to fight it comes. Don't let others feel for you the same way that you feel for someone who has a breath which stinks as much as bathrooms in the 40's did!