Don't ya just love that great social buzz kill, bad breath? Not!

Bad breath makes any look, no matter how gorgeous, turn into a total beauty bust! Sometimes a quick brush of the teeth or life-saving mint can do the trick, but other times it can be much tougher to get rid of.

"For a significant number of people bad breath, also called halitosis, is an unnecessary embarrassment caused by malodorant sulfur compounds created by putrefying bacteria in your mouth, primarily in crevices of your tongue," Dr. Bob Kross told us.

Dr. Kross is the oral care scientist and inventor who created BreathAppeal products that eliminate the excess odor causing bacteria.

Normal amounts of these bacteria will hardly affect your breath at all, but excessive levels can lead to bad breath and other serious oral problems, Kross warned us.

"You don't have to have a chronic condition for bad breath to be a problem," the expert said. "Summer is full of breath busters!"

As you plan get-togethers, check out the first bad breath culprit and read up on what Dr. Kross suggests keeping in mind to fight it tomorrow in Part 2:

Of the main summer bad breath causes, Dr. Kross says BBQ is definitely one of them. "While some bad breath may originate in the lungs and gut, easily 90 percent comes from the mouth itself," Kross said.

"For chronic sufferers of bad breath, excessive malodorant-producing bacteria are consistently present. For the average person however, the same bacteria thrive when fed by food particles and other debris lingering in mouth tissues."

So what's so bad about BBQ? "It's not pleasant to think about, but grilled meat can sit wedged in your teeth and tongue crevices for hours, and these particles feed the mouth's bacteria, increasing the risk of embarrassment associated with bad breath," he told us.

Check out Part 2 of our Bad Breath Culprit story below and learn what you can do to combat this problem with expert tips from Kross himself!