Halitosis: bad breath
Halitosis, or bad breath, is a condition which often realize.
Whether in the form of occasional bad breath feels almost all healthy adults to get up in the morning, or be it serious or severe problems, from metabolic disorders to lung tumors, it is said that the halitosis affects nearly 50% of a population .
Judging by the size of the market for sales of mouthwashes and other products to fight bad breath (of nearly one trillion dollars according to the latest statistics), halitosis is a personal problem that worries many people.
Causes of Halitosis
It can be generally caused by bacterial breakdown of food particles, cells, blood and certain components of saliva.
Thus, 90% of the causes of bad breath originates in the mouth. Because proteins and other chemicals in these materials decompose into simpler components such as amino acids and peptides, there are many volatile substances (fatty acids and sulfur components) related to its decomposition.
Some of these include propionic acid (odor of vomit), butyric acid (rancid butter smell or rotten meat), valeric acid, acetone, acetilaldehído, ethanol, propanol and diacyl.
Other breakdown products can become part of the metabolic pathways of bacteria in the mouth that are unfolding in volatile compounds.
This is particularly the case of sulfur-containing amino acids such as methionine, cysteine and cystine. The volatile sulfur compounds (CSVS) arising, such as hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide and other chemicals (cadaverine and putrescine, fetid diamines) are partly responsible for the smell in patients complain with halitosis (or people close to them.)
In the air of the human mouth have been detected 400 volatile compounds. It is found that more than 300 oral bacteria that cause CSVS detectable concentrations associated with halitosis, with more than 80% of subgingival plaque species only