What Are the Short-Term Effects of Poor Personal Hygiene?

Poor hygiene can cause short-term effects that can potentially harm yourself or others. Understanding how to maintain proper hygiene will allow you to avoid problems associated with not taking care of yourself. Personal relationships and career performance may suffer from the effects due to bad hygiene. While you do not need to go overboard with maintaining your hygiene, practicing daily showering, teeth brushing and hand washing will go a long way in keeping your body healthy.

Choosing to neglect your hygiene can cause you to give off a displeasing smell. Other people may not want contact with you because of how you smell. Taking a shower every day will help give you a clean smell. After you get out of the shower, apply deodorant. If you continue to smell bad, apply cologne or perfume to help you smell better.

One important aspect of hygiene includes brushing your teeth. According to Kids Health, not brushing your teeth can cause halitosis, a medical condition that means, simply, bad breath. It might prove hard to carry on a conversation with someone if your breath smells bad. The other person may not want to stand too close to you. Brushing your teeth twice a day can combat bad breath.

Washing your hands will help eliminate the spreading of germs, according to Family Education. If you choose to not wash your hands, this can cause you or someone else to get sick. Wash your hands after using the bathroom, spending time in a public place and before eating food. This will help keep you away from germs and lessen the chance of you spreading germs to someone else.

"Science Daily" suggests that poor hygiene can lead to different types of influenza. Obtaining germs through breathing a sick person's air or touching someone's hand can immediately cause influenza. Use a face mask if you have to spend time with someone who has influenza to avoid obtain the virus yourself.