If you have been struggling with bad breath that doesn't go away with eating mints or parsley, it might be that your oral health is to blame. The following tips will help you reduce your bad breath while improving your oral health at the same time.

Treat Your Gum Disease

One of the first things you should do if you have bad breath is visit your dentist at a place like High Street Dental. Not only will a professional cleaning help with bad breath since it might be due to food debris or plaque, but the dentist can look for signs of gum disease. If you have gum disease, also called periodontal disease, it causes an infection of your gums. This can lead to a bad taste and odour that doesn't go away no matter what you do. If you have gum disease, you need to have it treated with a deep cleaning through scaling and root planing, and possibly other procedures as well. You may find that once you have a deep cleaning, your breath is suddenly much better.

Use Mouthwash After Brushing Your Teeth

While brushing and flossing should be done twice a day to clean your teeth and give you fresh breath, it might not be enough for more severe cases of bad breath. A good way to boost your minty breath is with mouthwash. Mouthwash helps your breath in a number of different ways. First of all, the smell of the mouthwash often overwhelms other odours, at least temporarily. It won't last all day, but it is a good way to freshen up your mouth in the morning. It also helps to clean parts of your mouth where your toothbrush or dental floss won't reach. It can remove food particles from those hard-to-reach places and get it as clean as possible in between professional cleanings from your dentist.

Scrape Your Tongue

You should also consider scraping your tongue, as it can have a lot of extra bacteria that is reducing the freshness of your breath. If you find that no amount of brushing, flossing, or mouthwash is helping, it might actually be due to your tongue not being clean. Most toothbrushes have ridges or a scraping area near the bottom of the brush or behind the bristles where you can clean your tongue. If not, you can purchase a separate tongue scraper from the drug store. Make a habit of cleaning your tongue after brushing to give your breath a fresh scent.