Bad breath is a common symptom that can cause embarrassment in daily life, so many people seek medical treatment for it. The use of Yizhi Guixin Ertan Decoction for treatment has satisfactory results.
There are several main causes of bad breath: firstly, unclean oral hygiene, which allows bacteria to breed and cause foul odor in the mouth, or oral diseases such as toothache, ulceration and putrefaction, and dental caries; secondly, it can be caused by internal diseases. For example, people who eat spicy and greasy foods may have excessive internal heat and stagnation in the chest and stomach, or lung abscess with bloody sputum due to lung burning and putrefaction; stagnation of qi and blood stasis and metabolic obstruction can also cause foul breath when the qi flows upwards into the mouth.
Yizhi Guixin Ertan Decoction is composed of aromatic substances that can clear turbidity, promote digestion and resolve phlegm, and expel impurities. The ingredients include dried tangerine peel, cinnamon twig, melia seed, pinellia tuber, poria cocos, asarum herb, and licorice. It is decocted in water and taken twice a day, 200 milliliters each time.
Additional modifications can be made according to the specific symptoms: for food stagnation and internal heat, add immature bitter orange, chicken inner gold, and rhubarb; for excessive consumption of fatty and sweet foods and accumulation of damp heat, add kudzu flower (or stewed kudzu root), grains of paradise, sclerotium poriae cocos, fried orange peel, and nutmeg; for bile and stomach heat rising, add chicken bone grass, ten wonders leaves, areca nut, coptis chinensis, and charred three immortals; for disharmony between the liver and stomach, add bupleurum, vinegar scented attached, perilla stem, incense tree, and fried radish seeds; for spleen and stomach disharmony, add ginseng (or prince ginseng, codonopsis pilosula), charred white atractylodes, fructus aurantii immaturus, and fried orange peel; for qi stagnation and blood stasis, add solanum nigrum, polygonum multiflorum, curcuma zedoaria, and rose flower; for gastric and intestinal stagnation and constipation, add aloe vera, magnolia bark, cistanche salsa, and lithospermum erythrorhizon, etc.
Case study: Ms. Xu, a 47-year-old female. She has had bad breath for over six months, which has worsened recently, accompanied by loss of appetite and bloating after meals. Her tongue coating is yellow, smooth, and greasy, and her tongue is swollen with tooth marks on the edges. The color of her tongue is pale red, and her pulse is deep. The diagnosis indicates spleen deficiency and poor stomach function, with food stagnation in the stomach. The treatment focuses on strengthening the spleen and stomach, and promoting digestion and elimination of impurities. The modified prescription is Yizhi Guixin Ertan Decoction with the addition of 10 grams of melia seed, 10 grams of cinnamon twig, 3 grams of asarum herb, 3 grams of dried tangerine peel, 10 grams of pinellia tuber, 10 grams of poria cocos, 6 grams of licorice, 30 grams of huo xiang, 18 grams of charred white atractylodes, 15 grams of immature bitter orange, and 10 grams of charred three immortals. The decoction is taken with water, twice a day, 200 milliliters each time. In the follow-up visit, the bad breath has disappeared, appetite has increased, and bloating has decreased. The tongue coating is thin yellow with tooth marks. The original prescription is modified to include 30 grams of fried radish seeds, 9 grams of incense tree, and 9 grams of skullcap root. After another three doses, the symptoms disappeared after one week.
