Poop may be a gross topic that no one likes to talk about.
But if your breath has that kind of odor, you may not have anyone to talk to anyway.
Find out more on today's episode of This Old Tooth.
Hello everyone!
You are listening to This Old Tooth!
A podcast devoted to providing you with honest agenda, free information about
how you can get and keep a beautiful, healthy smile for life.
I am your host, Dr. Lisa Germain.
Today, I will be taking my eighth small bite in my series
about bad breath, its causes and what you can do about it.
My topic today is one that is not easily discussed.
But I will put on my big girl pants and discuss
the potential things that make your breath smell like feces.
First of all, let's remember that the mouth is the entry
to the GI tract and what goes in must come out.
Have you ever wondered why food that tastes and smells so good going in
comes out the other end smelling not so good?
Unless you are one of those people who swear yours doesn't stink.
We are frequently all a little touchy
and certainly very private about the odors we might be leaving in the bathroom.
Stool is made up of undigested food, bacteria, mucous and dead cells.
It usually smells bad because
of the bacteria and believe it or not, parasites.
It is the job of our GI tract to filter out the disease causing culprits
and eliminate them from our body instead of absorbing them into our bloodstream.
But it also can have compounds that produce an especially unpleasant smell.
Stool that contains a lot of fat and or alcohol can smell particularly bad.
If you find that you were leaving an especially foul odor after a visit to the bathroom,
chances are your breath smells similar.
Adjusting your diet and drinking a lot
of water is usually the simple solution to this problem.
But if it persists,
you want to check with your physician to rule out the possibility that you might
have a more serious underlying medical problem.
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome
are all things that can cause this problem to persist.
Now, a lot has been written recently about gut health,
and this has made the term microbiome a household word.
The GI tract contains more bacterial cells
than there are in the entire body, and they need to be in balance.
This is home base for the bacteria in your digestive tract.
Now, here they help you breakdown food
and turn nutrients into things your body can use.
They stop growing when they run out of food, so you'll only have what you need.
Studies have found that if you have too much of a certain kind of bad bacteria
in your gut microbiome, you're more likely to have bad breath.
And if this is what you suspect, a nutritionist might be able to help you
get balanced and in addition, might recommend taking a probiotic supplement.
Because the digestive tract contains more
bacterial cells than the rest of the body, it is extremely important that your bowels
are completely functional and excretion of waste products occurs regularly.
A blockage in your intestinal tract can
cause breath that smells like feces do not only to the fact that it is trapped inside
your intestines, but also due to food you've eaten
that can't move down your intestinal tract to be eliminated.
Anything you eat while unable to pass a bowel movement remains inside your
digestive tract and ferments, causing bad breath.
Intestinal obstructions are dangerous medical emergencies that occur when
a blockage forms in either your large or your small intestine.
Any number of things associated
with intestinal obstruction can cause this unpleasant breath odor,
including decreased appetite, bloating, abdominal swelling, constipation, nausea,
vomiting, abdominal pain or cramps, an inability to pass gas.
If you suspect that you might have an abdominal obstruction however,
bad breath is the least of your worries, see your physician immediately.
It is important that your bowels work well to absorb nutrients
that are necessary to keep your body going, but also to keep out any foods,
chemicals and germs that could do you harm.
And the good news is that once you get
things moving again, your breath will no longer have that horrible odor.
In addition to GI problems, sinus infections and other respiratory
problems can cause your breath to smell like feces as well.
These can be caused by bronchitis, viral colds, strep throat and more.
It is the mucus associated with a sinus infection that may have a bad odor,
which can cause the smelly breath as well as a bad taste in your mouth.
Intense sinus pressure can also cause pain in your gums,
which can lead to toothaches, gum, pain or general pain in your mouth.
Some sinus infections can become chronic,
and if this happens, no amount of brushing, flossing,
mouthwash or mints will remedy the poopy smell that your breath will emit.
Getting treatment for the chronic sinus problem is crucial for many reasons.
Your breath just being one of them.
Now children are more likely to develop
sinus infections after a viral cold than adults.
So if your child has gotten over a cold but you notice that their breath is
particularly bad, you might want to take them back
to the doctor and make sure that they don't have a sinus infection.
The cause of the problem may start out viral,
which would not require an antibiotic.
But if it persists,
it can turn into a bacterial problem because the warm, wet nature of the sinus
is a perfect environment for bacteria to grow.
This can create a secondary problem or a secondary infection.
Only your doctor can tell you whether or not
an antibiotic would be necessary to get rid of this problem.
And it is important not to just self medicate in these instances.
You don't want to make your body used to an antibiotic if you don't need it,
because when you do need it, it might not work.
Strep throat is another kind of bacterial infection, usually characterized by
red raw throat, difficulty swallowing, sometimes little pus pockets in the back
of your throat and it can cause horrible breath.
I have a vivid memory of the few times that my kids had strep throat because it
gave them this very distinct kind of bad breath.
It smelled different and much worse than when they had a cold.
Again, if you get rid of the source of the problem,
the bad breath will take care of itself.
But it still needs to be diagnosed by a doctor who will swab the throat
and send it to a lab for a culture to make sure that antibiotics are necessary.
And that's the scoop on breath that smells like poop.
AND NOW FOR A FUN FACT!
Levi Spear Parmley,
a dentist from New Orleans, which is my hometown,
is credited with inventing the first form of dental floss.
In 1819, he recommended running a wax and silk thread
between your teeth to dislodge that irritating matter which no brush can remove
and which is the real source of disease.
He considered this the most important part of oral care.
If you have any questions about your dental health,
please go to my website www.thisoldtooth.com
Send it to me on my Contact Me page and
it will come directly to my email address and I will answer it personally.
You can also message me on Instagram at @thisoldtooth.
And until then, thank you for listening!
And remember, be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.