Hygiene problems aside, scratch old wives tales about bad breath being caused by indigestion, constipation or worms. Of the 800-odd bacteria in the mouth, good and bad, just one...Streptococcos salivarius K12 (SsK12)...is enough for two percent of the world’s population to keep bad breath away.

Unfortunately, 98 per cent of us don’t have this naturally-occurring bacterium on the back of the tongue and in the throat area.

The lack of SsK12 means that your breath smells all the time as if you gorge yourself on rotten eggs, for example, and nothing else. Most bad breath and rotten eggs emit the same chemical odour i.e. a volatile sulphur compound called hydrogen sulphide (H2S).

Two other types of bad breath are methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) which produces faeces smell; and dimethyl sulphide (CH3SCH3), the smell of rotting cabbage mixed with sulphur and gasoline.

student rally court 050406 girl covering mouth This is just in case you have been wondering why people - when they remember - seem to keep a good distance from you, cover their nose when in your presence, pucker up their face immediately or grimace as if in agonising pain when they come across you.

This is the ultimate secret revealed by visiting Aussie bad breath specialist, Dr Geoffrey Speiser, 52, who flew in this week to inspect Malaysia’s and Asia’s first halitosis (bad breath) clinic at the Rafflesia Medical Centre (RMC) in Kota Kinabalu. The clinic which began operating in recent days has already screened its first 30 patients.

“The SsK12 would fire its own missiles at any bad breath bacteria that come towards it and destroy it,” explained Dr Speiser who is the owner of the only three other bad breath clinics in the world i.e. in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia and Manchester in England. “The SsK12 is able to control many opportunistic bacteria.”

SsK12 now commercially developed

“People who have SsK12 are lucky because not only they don’t have bad breath; they seldom become ill or suffer from mouth infections.”

Dr Speiser disclosed that SsK12 has now been commercially developed – BLIS K12 – i.e. probiotic (live) bacteria, in powder form and lozenges, which can be introduced into the mouth to protect against bad oral bacteria, prevent sore throat and fight bad breath.

The sore throat bacteria, Streptococcus Pyogene, can colonise the throat and release toxins that can spread to the heart and cause heart damage, it has been discovered.

Apparently, the mouth and throat should be in a natural balance of bacteria which needs oxygen and bacteria which can do without oxygen.

Once this balance is upset, the result is decay with bacteria that needs oxygen and sore throat and gum disease with the bacteria that don’t need oxygen.

“Natural good bacteria in someone’s mouth cannot grow in another person’s mouth because it’s natural to the owner,” explains Dr Speiser.

“So, kissing someone to get the natural good bacteria does not work. You can only get the bad bacteria which can straightaway take control.”

The pioneering work on halitosis was done by Aussie Professor John Tagg, a microbiologist, at Otago University in New Zealand, according to Dr Speiser, long before Harvard University released a study on SsK12.

Professor Tagg, a Melbourne native, evidently first developed an interest in the field after he caught rheumatic fever when he was 13 years old and was anxious to find a way to spare other children the sore throat bacteria.

50pc of population has bad breath

SsK12, however, is not the whole story and has to be considered in toto with illnesses, medication and lifestyle.

“Most people who are easily affected by bad breath are those who consume fewer carbohydrates but more proteins...bodybuilders, models as well as those who follow a food regime,” chipped in RMC executive chairman Dr Roland Chia Ming Shen, the only qualified dentist in Asia treating bad breath problems.

“Dental studies show that 50 per cent of the population generally has bad breath sometimes and 25 per cent have chronic bad breath while the majority of the people have morning breath due to bacterial reaction in a dry mouth condition.”

The main illnesses causing bad breath have been identified as chronic nasal problems, periodontal (gum) disease and dry mouth (Sjogren’s syndrome). Chronic nasal problem lines the throat and dorsum of the tongue with mucous and stops the nasal hairs from doing their cleaning action.

Periodontal disease promotes the growth of hardy anaerobic (non-oxygen) bacteria and increases the available surface area for biofilm, below the gum line.

Dry mouth affects the quality and quantity of saliva which is nature’s cleaning solution that helps stop mouth disease and helps reduce bad breath.

Excessive consumption of alcohol, a lifestyle problem, dries the mouth and decreases saliva, dairy products provide a food source for bad breath bacteria and thicken nasal mucous, smoking removes oxygen from the mouth and promotes bad breath bacteria while coffee and other drinks increase acid in the mouth, directly affecting saliva and bacteria.

Why don’t dentists treat bad breath?

“It is because dentists do not understand that bad breath is a practice builder,” said Dr Chia. “Bad breath is not perceived as a glamourous dental treatment unlike a cosmetic makeover.”

The approach to bad breath management at RMC, which hopes to attract medical tourists from the region, is a medical diagnostic tool called Oral Chroma or Halicheck Chromagraph which measures the seven gases in the mouth including the three that cause bad breath.

A healthy reading is HS (hydrogen sulphide) under 112 and preferably under 80, MM (methyl mercaptan) under 26 and preferably under 10 and DS (dimethyl sulphide) under 20.

This is followed by an assessment of the patient’s hygiene – saliva test, x-ray, clinical examination – and examination of personal and social lifestyle and dietary habits.

Treatment for bad breath, according to Dr Chia, involves the use of KForce with BLIS K12. “These two treatments work in three ways...as the passive occupier of the tongue area, active defence mechanism and host modifier,” assures Dr Chia.

“The entire package is between RM380 and RM760 depending on the severity of the problem.”