Bad breath can ruin a date or a business meeting. You can avoid this by paying attention to the condition of your oral cavity and following a few simple rules.

Here are some recommendations that will help you keep your breath fresh even after a long sleep.

Drink more water.

Saliva helps moisten and cleanse the mouth, and a lack of saliva means you’re not creating enough to keep your mouth clean and healthy. That’s why a dry mouth can also cause bad breath or even cracked lips and sores at the corners of your mouth.

You can try at-home solutions, like sipping water often, sucking on ice cubes, chewing sugarless gum, or sucking on sugarless hard candy. However, if none of these work, you should go to a doctor because a dry mouth could also be caused by a salivary gland condition or other diseases.

Go for chewing gum instead of mints.

Bad breath can be caused by the acid that’s naturally produced in your mouth. This can be the result of sugar consumption since that’s what the mouth uses up to produce said acid. Besides this, sugar can also lead to your teeth becoming worn down.

One way to cut out one form of sugar is to replace mints or sugary candy with sugar-free gum and sugar-free candy. Chewing gum will help your mouth to produce more saliva, which is the natural way the body fights plaque acids.

Visit the dentist more often.

If you have poor dental hygiene, chances are you’ve developed plaque, which is a film of bacteria that covers your teeth. With time, plaque hardens and becomes tartar, which could lead to the formation of pockets or small openings in the area between the teeth and gums where food, bacteria, and dental plaque can collect. This process is called periodontitis and it can lead to bad breath.