One of the first things you might notice when you wake up is a weird taste in your mouth, followed by the realization that your breath smells… bad. So, you grab your mouthwash and get on with your day, hoping no one feels the need to offer you a breath mint.

Ever wonder why your breath stinks?

To find out, we asked Dr. Batbileg Bor (@BatbilegBor), a scientist who studies the bacteria that live in our mouths with his lab at the Forsyth Institute.

It turns out that there are a bunch of microbes, including bacteria and other microscopic critters, that live in our mouth. Collectively, scientists call this the “oral microbiome”. And going beyond our breath, they can affect our health in ways that we are just beginning to understand. Bat takes us on a tour of this crazy small world and the one corner of it that he studies, a super tiny bacteria called TM7.

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