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American Morning

For 27 Million Americans, Bad Breath a Chronic Medical Problem

Aired June 17, 2002 - 08:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is unpleasant, to say the least, also embarrassing, but for 27 million Americans, bad breath is a chronic medical problem. In our house call today, Dr. Sanjay Gupta looking into this. Such a pleasant topic, Sanjay, chronic halitosis at 8:30 in the morning.

Good morning to you. Good to see you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Bill.

Yes, it is an unpleasant topic, no question, but no one's immune to it. Everyone's got it in some way, shape or form, bad breath, we're talking even movie stars, as we see here in "America's Sweethearts," Julia Roberts and John Cusack, trying to get over their morning breath.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: Good morning. How do you feel?

JOHN CUSACK, ACTOR: I feel -- I feel good. I feel weird.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Twenty-seven million people actually have a form of chronic halitosis, as you mentioned, Bill. That is chronically bad breath, and that, obviously, is a real problem. Now there are some times of the day when it's certainly worse than others, as we saw there, in the morning. That can certainly be a bad time of the day. Dry mouth can also cause it, and certain foods, like we hear about -- onions, garlic, obviously, everyone knows about those, but also high- protein foods, such as meats and dairy products as well.

What happens here -- I'm going to go through this, but try not be too disgusting about it, but basically you have a lot of bacteria that accumulates in your mouth. These bacteria can actually feed on protein from either food or from saliva. A lot of that bacteria, a lot of that junk, sort of accumulates near the back third of your mouth. That, in fact, is where most bad breath comes from, the back of your mouth, not your stomach. And 90 percent of the odors come from there, that back third of the tongue.

It's a huge problem, and because of that, it's a huge industry, $3 to $4 billion a year are spent on product, and we actually have -- went to the supermarket, pull out all sorts of different product, and what you'll find when you look at products, is that some products actually treat the breath, giving you fresher breath for the time being. Some products will actually take care of the bacteria, and there are a few products out there that do a combination of both, and that's what the experts say you should look for, something that will give you fresh breath, but also take care of the bacteria problem, especially for those early mornings, Bill.

HEMMER: Daryn thinks the story in all of this is that Julia Roberts actually has morning breath, or so in the film. Why is the morning so tough for people?

GUPTA: Well, the morning is a tough time, and I'll mention Julia Roberts probably should have been going to get her tongue scraper, because that what you would have needed really to take care of the bad breath in the morning.

The problem is, that when your mouth is closed all night long, that's a great environment for bacteria to sort of propagate and grow, mouth closed. If you're an open mouth breather, might be a little bit different. But no question, it's just all of that time with the mouth being closed, all those bacteria feeding off protein. This is disgusting stuff, but no question the morning time can be bad time because of that.

HEMMER: We got to hear it some time, don't we?

Listen, we're almost out of time. I want to skip forward here. Can one tell whether or not one has bad breath?

GUPTA: You know, it's a lot harder than you think. The old blow into the hand technique doesn't work so well.

HEMMER: Neither does this?

GUPTA: Right. But there actually are devices out there. One of them is called a Hal-Limiter. That measures your halitosis, a Hal- Limiter, but you probably don't need that. What you need more than anything else is someone that you really trust. The dentist I talked to said a five-year-old would work really well. You can ask them. You can also lick the very back of your tongue, and that's usually where the bad breath stuff hangs out.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Sanjay, before we let you go, let's have Bill show why he does not have bad breath. This is what he eats during the break. He always is munching...

No, show them the used one that you have over there.

HEMMER: That's a little disgusting for our viewers.

KAGAN: America need to know why Bill Hemmer has good breath.

HEMMER: Easy over there.

GUPTA: I got all kinds of stuff over here if you guys need anything.

KAGAN: He's doing just fine.

HEMMER: Box it and ship it, will you?

Thanks, Sanjay, talk to you later. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, today's "House Call." TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com