flossing

[waitingforrelief]

as i've mentioned in a post on the mastic thread, i flossed tonight and my fecal odor has been reduced a lot since this afternoon.

my question is, what is the "normal" odor on dental floss?

when it doesn't smell fecal, my floss (and saliva) sometimes just smells like really stinky saliva, with a morning breath-like odor to it sometimes. (i have a hard time distinguishing the saliva and morning breath odor.) do you guys smell your breath on your floss?

what IS the normal smell? is smelling one's floss an accurate way to gauge what one's breath smells like?

[austuser]

i would assume that the normal smell left on a piece of floss is 'no smell'. Since using smartmouth i have no smell on my floss. While i was antibiotics i had no smell on my floss. Normally i only have smell between the molar and wisdom teeth, but after my tripple therapy my breath came back worse and the shit smell was present between all teeth. I couldnt believe that happened.

If your floss/smell has been reduced because of mastic i'd say thats a pretty good indicator it is doing something

[mike987]

i recall sometimes not being able to floss for a couple days, the next time i would floss there may be a strong smell coming from a couple spaces between teeth..

it smelled more like tonsil stone than fecal.. i don't believe i have the fecal odor in my mouth..

now flossing twice a day, there doesn't seem to be any scent on my floss.. all i can smell is the flavor of the floss really.. though ever since i've been using the TUNG brush, i can barely pick up a scent from my saliva at all..

i don't think gauging the smell of your floss can accurately verify the state of your breath.. but if it's between every pair of teeth morning and night, you can definitely conclude that whatever bacteria is causing that scent is getting around your mouth easily enough

[CyberchndriacNot]

This is a good question. From my experience, I think there is some connection between the smell on the floss and BB. When I was on the TT there was no smell on the floss and I had no BB. The intermittent times when my BB came back whilst on the mastic/resin experimental treatment I immediately went to floss my teeth and was able to detect a very strong rotting smell between the spaces of 1 or 2 of my front teeth. I want to make clear that the teeth and gums are not the source of the smell as I regularly visit the dentist and have a cleaner mouth than most people, according to the dentists I'e visited. My gums are pink, do not recede and I do not have tartar build-up or cavities.

I think the spaces in and around the teeth allow the bacteria we're fighting to flourish, compounding the production of offensive smells. For me I think the smells are coming from the back of the throat, possibly the lungs and by the time it gets to your teeth it makes it difficult to control; the smelly compound producing bacteria have to be eliminated from these surfaces to start the fight - and we're always fighting - we can't get rid of it, but it's all about trying to keep these little critters at bay as much as possible for the longest length of time as possible. Mastic / resin has certainly helped me to achieve this and given me little bit of respite - I might not be killing the stuff, but I'm reducing their chances of reproduction in the numbers they reproduced before. Sorry, if I'm stating the obvious, this is just how I see it my condition...

[elliott]

anytime I eat meat or a fibrous food that gets stuck in between teeth (actually its the same few teeth everytime), if I don't floss it out at night, it will smell horrible (like tonsiloth/ammonia).

Once I floss it out, it's gone. I think it's simply the bacteria trying to eat the leftover dinner between your teeth. I chew on the right side, and have a few teeth that are closer than normal and those are the culprits. The other teeth never smell.

[waitingforrelief]

i recall sometimes not being able to floss for a couple days, the next time i would floss there may be a strong smell coming from a couple spaces between teeth..

it smelled more like tonsil stone than fecal.. i don't believe i have the fecal odor in my mouth..

now flossing twice a day, there doesn't seem to be any scent on my floss.. all i can smell is the flavor of the floss really.. though ever since i've been using the TUNG brush, i can barely pick up a scent from my saliva at all..

i don't think gauging the smell of your floss can accurately verify the state of your breath.. but if it's between every pair of teeth morning and night, you can definitely conclude that whatever bacteria is causing that scent is getting around your mouth easily enough

hmmm... just curious, mike. if your floss and saliva doesn't smell at all, does your breath really smell?

what does it smell like?

i wonder if it'd make a difference if you were to use unflavored floss.

[waitingforrelief]

i would assume that the normal smell left on a piece of floss is 'no smell'. Since using smartmouth i have no smell on my floss. While i was antibiotics i had no smell on my floss. Normally i only have smell between the molar and wisdom teeth, but after my tripple therapy my breath came back worse and the shit smell was present between all teeth. I couldnt believe that happened.

If your floss/smell has been reduced because of mastic i'd say thats a pretty good indicator it is doing something

oh believe me, i know it's doing something. i just don't know whether my bugs will still win the battle in the end. the nausea that i'd get sometimes after i drink the essence - it's obvious this is strong stuff.

so your floss doesn't even smell of saliva? i wonder what that unpleasant saliva-like scent is on mine and how it comes across in my breath...

[austuser]

floss doesnt smell but my salyva does. When i do the lick wrist test now that i am halitosis free it still smells kind of sharp and vinegary, if that makes sense. Asomeone mentioned before that they have smelled saliva on healthy people and it still smelled. I dont think the smell of saliva is a real gauge. You have to ask someone who will tell you if your breath is good or bad. No kinda good or kinda bad. It either smells bad or it doesnt.

[mike987]

hmmm... just curious, mike. if your floss and saliva doesn't smell at all, does your breath really smell?

what does it smell like?

i wonder if it'd make a difference if you were to use unflavored floss.

before using the TUNG brush, my saliva smelled like ass.. I used to think everyone's saliva smelled like that.. that the saliva activated dried sweat on the skin so it would release a salty odor.. haha no, just my mouth.. i actually relate the scent to my exgirlfriends lower region.. because i would smell the saliva while serving her .. sorry for the detail

i don't think i have quite the problem that most of you do, but i'm certain i have a noticeable problem from within a few feet of people..

as for the smell of my breath, it's odd and i certainly can't place it.. i don't have the courage yet to have a friend gauge my bad breath.. but i have asked my little bro about it a week or two ago.. i ate breakfast, flossed, brushed teeth, used TUNG brush, use an alcohol free rinse.. less than two hours later (without eating), i asked my brother how my breath was.. from more than an arms length away, he said "it didnt smell bad", though i knew he was being polite.. i asked him what it smelled like.. he said 'kind of like eggs' .. i didn't feel he was being completely honest so i breathed heavily in his face and he seemed pretty disgusted and ran away :p

oddly enough, i never smell the egg odor.. when i'm around friends or close to people, i often get a strange whiff of something weird.. i used to think it was one of my friends breath, .. one time i asked him to breath in my face.. but his breath was very pleasant.. i didn't connect at the time that it was my breath coming back and hitting me in the face..

anyway.. i'll try to describe it.. forgive me if this is a horrid description..

it reminds me most of the scent of thick ear wax .. with a little sweat.. maybe a little bit fishy? i've never smelled anything like it really...

i'm certain it's me, because it doesn't matter who it is i'm around or where.. always the same smell.. i still don't know if it's exclusive to my mouth, or if it comes out of my nose too.. hmmm

[jo317]

Whenever I'd floss it would smell BAD between most teeth. When I went to the dentist a year ago they said my gums looked fine. I have PND but I cannot smell the mucus. I get a white coating on my tongue but when I scrape it off and smell it, it does not smell like nothing but is definitely no where as bad of a smell as it is on my floss. I just recently bought a waterpik. I use that (with salt water and am going to start using HP too) and then take an ORAL probiotic. Even after just a day or two of that my floss smells like NOTHING. I'm not sure which of the two things helped the most but my mouth definitely tastes better.