What causes bitter taste at the root of the tongue?

The phenomenon of bad breath at the root of the tongue is generally caused by excessive liver fire. If you do not pay attention to oral hygiene and do not brush your teeth the night before, such symptoms may also appear the next morning. Therefore, you should pay attention to oral hygiene at ordinary times. In terms of diet, you should not overeat, especially it is best not to eat two hours before going to bed to avoid indigestion and bad breath.

Not all bad breath is caused by illness. Introduction to the causes of bad breath

Cause of bad breath 1: oral halitosis

According to statistics, 80% to 90% of bad breath comes from the oral cavity. Untreated caries, residual roots, residual crowns, poor restorations, abnormal anatomical structures, gingivitis, periodontitis and oral mucosal diseases in the mouth can all cause bad breath. Among them, dental caries and periodontal disease are the most common related diseases. Food residues and plaque often remain in deep caries cavities and under the overhangs of poor restorations. Bacteria ferment and decompose them, producing odor. Dental pulp necrosis or suppurative pulpitis can also cause a bad odor if not treated. Patients with periodontal disease often have a large amount of tartar and plaque, and the bacterial fermentation in the periodontal pocket produces hydrogen sulfide, indole and ammonia, which produce a bad odor. In addition, pus discharge from periodontal abscesses and periodontal pockets is mostly caused by infection with Staphylococcus aureus combined with periodontal pathogens, which can also emit a foul odor. The quality and quantity of saliva also play an important role.

The second reason for bad breath: non-oral bad breath

Diseases of the tissues adjacent to the oral cavity, such as purulent tonsillitis, chronic maxillary sinusitis, atrophic rhinitis, etc., can produce purulent secretions and emit a foul odor; common clinical medical diseases such as acute and chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer have a sour and smelly odor; pyloric obstruction and advanced gastric cancer often have stinky duck egg-like bad breath; patients with diabetic ketoacidosis can exhale acetone-smelling gas, and patients with uremia exhale the smell of rotten apples. In addition, diseases such as leukemia, vitamin deficiency, and heavy metal poisoning can all cause bad breath.

The third reason for bad breath: physiological bad breath

Hunger, consumption of certain medicines or irritating foods such as onions and garlic, smoking, and reduced saliva secretion during sleep resulting in bacteria decomposing food residues in large quantities can all cause temporary bad breath. Bad breath in healthy people may be caused by bad oral habits and oral hygiene, which leads to an increase and thickening of plaque on the back of the tongue. Due to the large surface area of ​​the back of the tongue, there are many papillae, grooves and depressions, which are conducive to the retention of bacteria, desquamated epithelium of the oral mucosa, food residues, etc., acting as a "bacterial storage room" and facilitating the production of bad breath. Studies have shown that the degree of bad breath, the amount of volatile sulfides, and the thickness and area of ​​the tongue coating are positively correlated, among which the relationship with the thickness of the tongue coating is closer. Volatile sulfides are reduced after removing the tongue coating.

Based on the symptoms introduced above, patients can clearly know what type of bad breath they have, so that they can take appropriate methods to treat it, which will have a better treatment effect. After these non-pathological bad breath are cured, patients must maintain good oral hygiene habits, so as to effectively prevent similar bad breath from occurring again.