Everybody experiences bad breath from time to time. We may have eaten one of the famous Bloomin’ Onions from Outback Steakhouse. Maybe we had a long night out with pals and didn’t feel like brushing our teeth after that last beer. These bad breath episodes are common. However, some people suffer from another type of bad breath: Chronic bad breath. This can be a real issue to people who suffer from it, and may even be a symptom of a worse problem. Many times bad breath is a bad sign.

Typically, our bodies will tell us when something is not quite right. When we are cut, we experience pain, when we are sick, we may vomit or have diarrhea. In the case of chronic bad breath, this may also be your body telling your something is significantly wrong. Bad breath can be caused by several different factors. Let us examine the first one: improper gum care.

Improper gum care is bad breath’s worst enemy. This means a person is not flossing enough or not brushing their teeth in the right way. The bad breath is caused by food stuck between the teeth emitting gasses while decomposing. If being disgusting isn’t enough, this can cause gum disease. Gum disease can lead to a loss of teeth. This means bad breath can be an early warning sign for tooth loss.

Another situation of bad breath being an ominous sign is when the odor is actually coming from your nose. Many times bad breath is mistakenly diagnosed when the problem is actually originating in its upper neighbor: the nose. Nose odor can caused by a foreign body stuck in the nose cavity festering for months, or even years. While, masking themselves as bad breath, these foreign bodies can obstruct airway passages and cause infection.

Perhaps a less common cause of bad breath is when problems arise in the lungs or another organ in the body. This is a bad sign. It only occurs if the odor is coming from the mouth in the form of bad breath and also coming from the nose at the same time. This is very rare, but should be taken seriously if detected because it indicates there is something wrong with a bodily organ.

Socially, bad breath is an embarrassment, but health is the more important issue. Chronic bad breath can be the symptom of another serious health problem and should be addressed immediately.