Fact or Myth: Do Allergies Cause Bad Breath?

This is a FACT.

If you suffer from allergies, you may have noticed that during allergy season your breath is…well, let’s just say not all that fresh. It’s not that you’ve let your oral hygiene habits slip, it’s just one more irksome allergy symptom to contend with.

bad breathSneezing, Sniffing, Coughing with a Side of Halitosis

That’s not what you ordered! Unfortunately, most allergy medication causes dry mouth, which in turn delivers an order of halitosis to go.

When bacteria invade your gums and teeth they cause plague, gum disease and…you guessed it…bad breath. These bacteria live in your mouth and feed off the carbohydrates you eat. A healthy mouth full of saliva washes these bacteria away before they can encourage offending breath, but when the mouth is dry of saliva, the bacteria stick to the teeth, in crevices and deep in the gums. Rinsing with mouthwash no longer does the trick when it comes to chronic bad breath.

Another way allergies cause bad breath is by inducing postnasal drip. Postnasal drip is essentially mucus that creeps from the sinus cavities down the back of the throat, where bacteria gobble it up. The perfect food source for bad breath bacteria! Postnasal drip can also become infected, leading to more bacteria taking up residence in the mouth.

How to Treat Bad Breath

Allergies cause bad breath, but that doesn’t mean you can’t beat them at their own game. Here are a few ways to treat bad breath:

1)   Trade in your allergy medication for an antihistamine that doesn’t cause dry mouth.

2)   Drink ginger or lemon tea to combat postnasal drip.

3)   Guzzle down tons of water!

4)   Rinse your sinuses with a neti-pot solution of water and sea-salt.

5)   Ditch standard breath mints for probiotic mints that deliver a healthy dose of good bacteria to your mouth. Fill your mouth up with good bacteria, and the bad bacteria won’t have any room to grow and thrive!

Bad breath isn’t a losing battle, especially when it’s caused by allergies. Knowing the cause is the first step in eliminating the symptom!