British girls say that the worst morning-after nightmare is waking to their new lover’s bad breath.
A poll of 1,045 adults revealed that a stale mouth bothers nearly half of women – 41% – far higher than the one in four who fear getting naked in front of their man. And one in three men are bothered too by ‘morning mouth’, revealed the survey.
Other dating nightmares include suffering awkward silences, being stood up and a partner in need of deodorant.
The survey, carried out on behalf of BioRepair toothpaste, also reveals that most people fear having food stuck in their teeth, discovering they have no chemistry with their date, falling over and spilling a drink.
One in four men fear being stood up on a date compared with just 6% of women.
Louise Fair, spokeswoman for BioRepair toothpaste, said: ‘It was surprising just how fearful Brits are of having morning breath in front of a new partner, especially as this came in as more embarrassing than being naked in front of a new partner.’
Brushing and scraping the tongue, and brushing and flossing at least twice day can help people avoid developing bad breath, dentists advise.
More recently, the Japanese have come up with a bar breathalyser that checks for bad breath, too.
The unit displays six levels of breath detection, and will show you the ‘score’ using one of the smiley face or sad face icons. The one to six scale rates the freshest breath as a ‘1’ and the stinkiest as a ‘6’.
• If you have any queries about bad breath, you can email one of our experts on the site
