Chewing Gum With The Right Ingredients Can Freshen Your Breath

Chewing gum can freshen our breath. But gum with the wrong ingredients can ultimately make your breath smell worse.

The key to selecting a good chewing gum is to make sure it does NOT contain sugar, especially sucrose, glucose, or aspartame. The oral bacteria in your mouth uses the sugar to generate acids, which lead to tooth decay. The sugar also feeds odor-causing bacteria in your mouth, so in the end your breath may smell worse after chewing sugar-laden gum.

Here are some ingredients that should be in your chewing gum:

1. Zinc Gluconate. Zinc inhibits the acid in your mouth produced by mutans streptococci (the bacteria in your mouth that cause bad breath). These bacteria thrive in an acidic environment, so when you neutralize the acids you kill bacteria (and you help prevent that annoying tinny, metallic taste). Another benefit of neutralizing the acids in your mouth is that you protect your tooth enamel, thereby maintaining a brighter, whiter smell.

Zinc ions also disrupt certain receptors on the outer cell wall of anaerobic bacteria. This prevents the bacteria from producing odor-causing sulfur in your mouth.

Yet another benefit of zinc glucoate is that it been used to help people with long-term taste disorcers by rejuvenating their taste buds.

2. Xylitol. Xylitol is an all-natural sweetner made from the bark of hardwood trees. It is an excellent replacement for sugar or Aspartame (Nutrasweet). It is the only sweetner proven to fight tooth decay. While sugar feeds oral bacteria to generate acids that can cause tooth decay, xylitol actually prevents the bacteria from doing so. It therefore creates a healthy environment in your mouth.

3. Oxygenating compounds. Oxygenating compounds cover your mouth and throat with oxygenating molecules that help neutralize odor-causing bacteria found in your mouth, throat, tonsils, and upper reaches of your esophagus. These bacteria are anaerobic, that is, they thrive in an oxygen-free environment. But the oxygenating compounds bathe the entire mouth and throat with oxygen, thus minimizing the ability of these bacteria to produce offensive smelling sulfur compounds.

You can freshen your breath with chewing gum , but make sure it has the right ingredients. Otherwise, you could be making your breath worse! As always, we invite your comments and questions.