Why Coffee Causes Bad Breath and What You Can Do About It

Bad breath from coffee is very unpleasant for many coffee drinkers. In this article, we explain why coffee can cause bad breath and what you can do to get rid of it.

Bad breath from coffee – that’s why it occurs

If you drink coffee, you can suffer from bad breath. At first, many may not understand why coffee in particular can trigger bad breath, because the drink actually doesn’t smell bad at all. In this section we look at what can happen in your mouth after a cup of coffee.

• There are many bacteria in our mouth, including those that metabolize food. If you drink coffee, the bacteria process it and sulfur is produced.
• We perceive the sulfur substances as an odor, which is usually quite unpleasant. The more coffee you drink, the stronger the smell can be. Milk in coffee also reinforces this due to the large amount of protein, which also has to be broken down.
• In addition, coffee has a high caffeine content. This ensures that the saliva in the mouth decreases significantly for a short time and the pH value in the oral cavity gets out of balance.
• The saliva has the task of cleaning the mouth. If we have less of it, then less is cleaned. The bacteria that cause the sulfur smell can spread more easily.

This helps against coffee bad breath

Many people do not recognize their own bad breath, but their fellow human beings all the more so. It is therefore important that we know how to recognize bad breath and what we can do in an emergency so that we can get rid of the unpleasant odor quickly.

• We can breathe on other people and ask if they smell something, but that’s too embarrassing for most coffee drinkers. There are other ways to identify bad breath.
• The first indication is a strange, putrid, or sour taste in the mouth. If this is the case, then you should check your tongue.
• Usually this is pink in color and without plaque. However, if a white coating has formed, this indicates bad breath from coffee.
• You could omit the milk to reduce bad breath, but that’s not an option for many coffee drinkers. Alternatively, you should drink plenty of water. This keeps the mouth moist and practically replaces saliva.
• Sugar-free chewing gum or peppermint sweets, for example, provide quick help with bad breath. Chewing gum encourages salivation.
• A little insider tip in this situation is ginger. Regardless of whether it is a small piece or as a tea, ginger stimulates the formation of an enzyme that breaks down the sulfur that is produced.