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I would guess that the wrinkle is that one's mouth would still be chock-full of bacteria, lending the breath a fœtid odour.
by jdpage 13y ago
I would guess that the wrinkle is that one's mouth would still be chock-full of bacteria, lending the breath a fœtid odour.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWhy are we randomly switching to latin characters?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jdpage 13y agoSorry. That's actually the original (and still an acceptable) spelling, and I rather prefer it. English doesn't really have enough vowels, so distinguishing between `e' and `œ' makes sense, orthographically. I also tend to use diæreses where appropriate. Of course, normally I would give at least a passing thought to using more modernized spellings in this context, but I have spent most of the week writing up a series of observation sessions and my brain is beginning to revolt, liquefy, and dribble out of my ears.
- bmelton 13y agoInteresting assertion. You're undoubtedly right, of course, but it just reminds me of the ideals promoted by the deodorant companies. Once upon a time, everybody smelled like everybody smells, which is to say, probably not quite as pleasant as people smell now -- arguably. Then somebody came along and invented deodorant, began marketing it to women to give them a competitive dating advantage -- "Smell better than the next woman and get more men" -- which they (historically obviously) fell for, and now deodorant is considered necessary... but for what purpose? People are very adaptive to smell, and beyond the same statistical outliers we have now, generally speaking, people would have smelled about the same. Now though, the bar has been arbitrarily raised, and the result is that everybody not wearing deodorant is a grotesquely smelling freak, where the only outcome is that, once again, we all smell the same, but slightly different -- and of course, we're now all spending an extra $10 a month on a product that nobody really needs, but that was marketed well enough initially that it's become a staple.
- hrjet 13y agoNot a fan of deodorants but, biologically, they may not be completely useless: 1. Being able to afford a deodorant indicates wealth, and thus better chances of survival of the offspring. 2. Using a deodorant might also indicate an awareness of personal hygiene in the individual (atleast purportedly). This might again increase the survival chances of the offspring.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoNeither of those points suggests that deodorants, in themselves, are anything but useless. Instead, they suggest that paying attention to deodorant use makes sense even though deodorants are completely useless.
- mistermann 13y agoBy useless, do you mean they have no effect whatsoever?
- thaumasiotes 13y agoI'm following the context set by my ancestor comments, which is that deodorant is to americans as, according to Socrates, horsehair crests were to classical soldiers.
- gojomo 13y agoAha, the "signalling theory of deodorant". Some think a college degree 'works' in the same way.
- reubenmorais 13y agoWhile reading this I realized most of the times when I've been complimented for my smell, I was far from being perfumed – getting home after a busy day, arriving somewhere after having to run to catch a bus, things like that.
- babby 13y ago
- baby 13y agoyou need to brush your tongue for that.
- aestra 13y agoI would suggest not using a toothbrush on your tongue, those are designed for teeth. Get a dedicated tongue cleaner. You'll be glad you did; everyone should clean their tongue.
- baby 13y agoI have both actually. And I use both as my tongue scrapper doesn't always work in the way I want to.
- pyduan 13y agoFrom what I understand these would be complementary: the advantage of a probiotic solution would be that you basically get the treatment from time to time then never have to care about periodontal disease (which affects almost half of the US population [1]) or tooth decay, and then just have to brush your teeth or tongue to freshen your breath (but without long-term consequences if you don't). [1] http://www.perio.org/consumer/cdc-study.htm http://www.perio.org/consumer/cdc-study.htm
- x0x0 13y agoI googled. It appears bad breath is (mainly?) due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan [1]. These are mostly not produced by s.mutans but instead by gram-negative bacteria. otoh, S. salivarius K12 appears (and it being studied) to produce substances which inhibit s. mutans and the gram-negative bacteria [same article]. [1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=beat-bad-breath-keep-mouth-bacteria-happy&page=2 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=beat-bad-br...