Taming dragon breath

It will doom you to social mockery, financial ruin and self-loathing. Or, at least, eliminate the chance of a second date with Mr. Right.

Bad breath afflicts everyone, at least temporarily. Maybe you've seen your client recoil after you eat onions on your sandwich. Or maybe your halitosis is so chronic you buy breath mints by the barrel.

Either way, there's good news: Scientists are on the case.

Over 200 breath odor researchers from two dozen countries converged in Chicago this summer to report on the latest research and promote scientific study.

Here's what we learned to help you finally tame that dragon breath.

Why so stinky?

Blame the bacteria. These little buggers feed on the food particles you neglected to pick out of your teeth or scrape off your tongue, and they produce horrible-smelling gasses called volatile sulfur compounds.

In a minority of cases (less than 10 percent) the culprit lies deeper. Liver disease, kidney disease and acid reflux are all associated with halitosis. So is post nasal drip; that mucous is a feeding ground for bacteria, said Christine Wu, a researcher in the dental school of University of Illinois at Chicago who organized the breath odor conference in August.

If all else fails, blame your parents. Researchers who study halitosis in twins say some factors of bad breath are probably genetic.

Attack your biofilm

Foul-smelling bacteria cling to your teeth and gums, but most of the ones that cause bad breath hang out on the very back of your tongue.

Breath odor researchers have a word for your tongue's resident bacteria: "biofilm."

This biofilm loves the moist, oxygen-depleted environment on the back of your tongue, which is filled with tiny nooks and crannies like an English muffin.

You can banish the top layer by brushing your tongue, though a scraper might let you get farther back on your tongue without triggering the gag reflex. Reach makes a toothbrush with a built-in scraper.

But some bacteria lurk on your tongue even after a thorough scraping, said British researcher Jorg Hess. These more permanent levels of biofilm might be to blame for stubborn bad breath, he said.

Attack them with a rinse -- after you brush, floss and scrape, of course. Mouthwashes do more than taste minty fresh; many contain agents that kill bacteria.

Look for a mouth rinse with menthol or other essential oils, Cetylpyridinium chloride, Triclosan or zinc. Some come in mild flavors like vanilla mint and citrus. They work the same way as minty mouthwashes, you're just left with a different flavor. There's a trend away from alcohol-based mouthwashes, which can dehydrate the mouth.

The best time to use mouthwash is right before bed, so it can go to work at a time when your mouth is naturally low on bacteria-clearing saliva, said internationally known breath researcher Mel Rosenberg, a microbiologist at Tel Aviv University and past president of the International Society for Breath Odor Research.

Otherwise, wait an hour or two after brushing to use mouthwash, Rosenberg said. Toothpaste and mouthwash often include agents that work against each other, he said.

Mouthwash can't do the job alone, Rosenberg says. You must floss and brush.

Likewise, lowly breath mints or sticks of gum lack the power to battle a mouth full of gas-producing bacteria on their own. As a complement to a floss-brush-rinse regime, however, they can be effective.

If you can't brush your teeth, chew sugarless gum for a few minutes, Rosenberg advises. Some gums have active ingredients to kill bacteria in addition to flavoring your mouth. Also, simply by increasing saliva production, gum might help rinse some of the bacteria out of your mouth.

Our mint addiction

A lot of people think they have bad breath, but they don't. It's called delusional halitosis and it affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans.

These folks get suspicious when someone offers them a stick of gum.

"It's a huge psychiatric problem, and we don't know what to do about it," Rosenberg said.

What if you suspect you really do have bad breath? Scientists are working on an electronic nose that can confirm your diagnosis. Some devices can parse your breath into the various chemical compounds that are making it stink.

These are mostly used for research purposes, but a portable OralChroma device that measures the three most common compounds costs roughly $6,000 -- affordable for a dentist's office.

Still, the best way to know your breath status is simply to ask an adult you trust for an honest appraisal.

"People aren't going to tell you," Rosenberg said. "You have to ask."

A career option?

Human noses are still more sensitive than any machine. That's why companies who create fragrances and flavors hire professional "sniffers" to test their products.

The British firm Givaudan -- which is behind some of the flavors in Listerine products -- recruits odor judges with particularly sensitive senses of smell, then trains them to decipher various compounds in breath.

"These sniffers are like wine tasters," Wu said. "They can tell garlic breath from other breath."

In a typical session, the sniffer will smell a test subject's breath before and after he uses a mouthwash, then rank its rankness on a scale.

"I guess it does qualify for one of the worst jobs you can do," said Jonathan Richards, a flavorist for Givaudan who has, on occasion, filled in for a sniffer.

Or maybe not; the same odor judges test antiperspirant.

Anti-odor eating

Some foods doom you to at least a temporary state of halitosis. Onions and garlic top the list. So do low-carb diets like Atkins; bacteria seem to thrive on all that protein.

And then there are foods that actually fight bad breath, Wu said.

Essential oils like peppermint and cinnamon will flavor your mouth as well as kill bacteria. A UIC study found cinnamon gum (they used Big Red, as the study was funded by Wrigley) cut the bacteria in saliva in half.

Rinsing the mouth in cranberry juice cocktail or black tea also lowered the volatile sulfur compounds present in bad breath, Wu said.

Other foods shown to inhibit oral bacteria include soy beans, honey, raisins, dried plums and cacao beans -- proving once again the power of chocolate to cure what ails you.