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Don't forget your toothbrush!
By Ossiana Tepfenhart — Written on Dec 21, 2018
You’re on a date with a gorgeous guy who is intelligent, entertaining, and well-mannered. It’s like a dream come true. You’ve been chatting with him over your delicious garlic pasta dinner for what feels like ages, and it’s been nothing short of an amazing night. Yep, you’re feeling him.
He drops you off at home and you’re getting ready to seal the deal with a kiss. As you get closer to him, his nose wrinkles. He suddenly backs away and says that he wants to see you again. As you get back to your living room, you smell your breath — and it reeks to high heaven! Yeah, you probably aren’t going to see him again.
It’s a nightmare scenario that happens more often than you think, and trust me when I say that it has ruined many a potential couple. Thankfully, it’s possible to make your breath smell good on the go. Here's how to make your breath smell good with some of the easiest tricks to use when you’re out on a hot date.
1. Have decent oral hygiene.
There’s a phrase that definitely applies to your breath here: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s always true when it comes to your breath and teeth. Brush your teeth, use mouthwash, and please, go to the dentist. This can and will help you make your breath smell good long-term.
2. If you want to avoid bad breath in the long term, avoid sugary foods.
Sugar helps bacteria breed in your mouth, and bacteria is what causes bad breath. By reducing your candy bar intake, you can keep yourself from getting stinky breath when you’re older.
3. Don’t smoke, and avoid eating pungent foods during your date.
The easiest remedy for how to make your breath smell good throughout a date is to avoid the habits that cause peoples’ breath to stink in the first place. So, rather than nosh on garlic rolls, try to eat a fresh salad instead. And smoking? Yeah, don’t do that, either.
4. Suck on the citrus slice that came with your drink.
Oranges, lemons, and limes all have breath freshening abilities — and always come alongside a glass of water if you ask nicely. If you just ate something foul, just nibble on a slice of lemon.
5. Grab a little parsley from your plate.
You didn’t think that little sprig of parsley was just for aesthetics, did you? Well, okay, maybe it is, but it has a nice ability to make your breath smell good after eating something foul.
6. Drink water.
Water isn’t just good for weight loss and clearing up your skin; it’s an amazing tool for freshening up breath. When you’re dehydrated, the heavy concentration of bacteria makes your breath stink. Water washes away that bacteria and keeps your breath smelling better.
7. Skip coffee and alcohol.
Alcohol and caffeine both act as double whammies when it comes to keeping your breath fresh as can be. Both alcohol and caffeine act as diuretics, which, in turn, can cause dehydration. To make matters worse, both of these drinks also have pretty foul telltale scents.
8. Crunch on celery and other hard veggies.
Your mom was right to tell you to eat more veggies! Along with being packed with vitamins, vegetables promote an alkaline environment in your mouth, which makes it harder for stinky bacteria to breed. If you pick crunchy veggies like celery, you get the added perk of having those vegetables clear out gunk from between your teeth.
9. Chew some gum.
If you aren’t looking to change up your diet, or if you’re going out on a date where food probably won’t be there, there’s one classic standby you can always rely on: gum. Just grab a pack of that Trident and chew some before you start your makeout session.
10. Keep some breath spray on hand.
Remember when you’d watch Looney Tunes and two characters would whip out spray right before they kissed? Back in the day, that was the easiest way to keep your breath smelling good. It may be a retro way to handle things, but this works.
11. Grab some green tea.
Seriously, is there anything green tea doesn’t improve? The bacteria that causes bad breath really tends to hate green tea’s antibacterial properties. By drinking a cup or two of the green stuff during a date, you can neutralize bad breath.
12. Rinse with mouthwash.
A good friend of mine actually carries one of those small travel bottles of mouthwash with them when they feel like they’re going to get lucky. Mouthwash is great for reducing bad breath during a hot date, especially if you have a tendency of getting foul breath in the morning.
13. Give probiotics a try.
People are worried about getting bad breath from the bad bacteria in their mouths, but it’s important to remember that there’s also good bacteria that can help fight bad breath. Eating foods rich in probiotics like yogurt can help make a huge difference in how your breath smells over time.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a Jack-of-all-trades writer based out of Red Bank, New Jersey. When she's not writing, she's drinking red wine and chilling with some cool cats. You can follow her @bluntandwitty on Twitter.