Politicians top of bad breath league

POLITICIANS AND lawyers may be blessed with the gift of the gab but many have bad breath.

Professor Mel Rosenberg, a microbiologist, told a British Dental Association conference yesterday that politicians, lawyers, judges, MPs and teachers were more likely to have "dragon-mouth" because they were forever talking.

"Their mouths dry out as they talk and when your mouth dries out, the saliva, the body's mouthwash, cannot carry away the bacteria. Also the movement of the tongue airs the smelly gases and sends them out."

More than 100 dentists attended a seminar given by the Israeli scientist in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

Professor Rosenberg has studied bad breath for more than 15 years. He believes that Stratford resident William Shakespeare, who wrote a lot about good and bad breath, may have suffered from it. He said: "Although the causes of the condition are still uncertain today, primitive health care during the 16th century would mean many may well have suffered the condition."