Tips for getting through plane flights

[deebas]

Hi all,

I have to go on a 6 hour flight in a few days and not looking forward to the comments and the stares. My last flight was particularly bad and probably the worst I have ever felt.

I was hoping that the people here who have chronic BB that fills up a room can give me some tips. Anything you can carry that negates smell or any other ideas

[betterdays]

I usually do a 7 day cleanse. And fast the day before, Liquids only the day of but my bb comes from my tongue and throat and pretty much any food I eat creates bb. I fly pretty frequently at least once a month and it use to be a nightmare.

[searching]

I was hoping that the people here who have chronic BB that fills up a room can give me some tips. Anything you can carry that negates smell or any other ideas

deebas,

Do you own a Waterpik or other type of oral irrigator?

If so, I have a technique that may be useful. I do the following.

Brush my teeth with ordinary toothpaste, then floss.

Next fill an oral irrigator, nearly to maximum capacity, i.e. 700 mls., with warm water. Add about 1 teaspoonful to 1 tablespoonful of vinegar, any type, i.e. white, apple cider, etc.. Lemon juice, pulp-free, is a good substitute for vinegar. Mix the contents. Use the oral irrigator at full force, with the jet tip, and walk the tip along the entire gumline where it meets the teeth, both upper and lower teeth, on the tongue side and the cheek sides of the teeth. Aim the irrigator tip toward the tooth roots. You can also use the brush tip and treat gums, tongue, and soft palate. Use the entire solution, i.e. 1 to 2 minutes of irrigation.

This will flush out and inactivate BB causing microorganisms. The result is immediate.

I then rinse with plain water and use a chewable, over-the-counter calcium carbonate antacid tablet or two to neutralize the acidity.

To those with concerns about the effect of acidity on tooth enamel, myself included, please consider that the vinegar concentration in this solution is only 2 to 10 weight% that of [some] salad dressing or pickle juice.

This method strips away biofilm and temporarily alters oral pH which disrupts the BB ecology.

I use no other antimicrobials, apart from that mentioned above. I do this as needed, i.e. once or twice weekly. I have zero plaque. Enamel qualitatively appears okay.

BTW: I'm scheduled for a 4 hour flight tomorrow; and, was aboard a flight of equal duration twice this past week. It was close quarters and I had no worries.

[halitosisux]

Sorry to stray from the original subject..

Searching, just some information you may be interested in. I'm experimenting with salt water at the moment. I'm dissolving a tablespoon of salt into about 500ml of water and using it in my Waterpik. I'm irrigating my gums and between my teeth, and particularly around my last impacted wisdom tooth.

This remaining tooth is horizontally impacted and below the gum, except for a tiny 5mm diameter protrusion of the tooth through the thin gum that covers it. Without any kind of active intervention, the gum around this tiny hole will cause a finger to smell if I rub it. Using the Waterpik, I'm able to eliminate this odour completely. I've tried plain water in the past, which doesn't eliminate the odour. Chlorhexidine eliminates the odour. But recently I've been experimenting with other additives to the water, and so far salt water seems to be just as effective as chlorhexidine.

Have you ever tried salt water irrigation? I would be grateful to hear any thoughts you might have on this as a bacterial/odour control. I know salt isn't an antibacterial, but it's definitely effective in my case for irrigation and I'm curious to learn more on how it's managing to be so effective.

I am also gargling with chlorhexidine and hydrogen peroxide, and using Colgate Total toothpaste to brush my teeth, and lightly brushing my tongue with zinc lactate (contained in a certain toothpaste). With all of these measures combined, I'm managing to prevent any odour buildup through the day, and even by the morning my mouth is still good. Without all of the above measures, there will be some odour buildup.

There are no detrimental effects with any of the measures I'm currently taking.

[searching]

Searching, Have you ever tried salt water irrigation?

Halitosisux,

Oral irrigation helps manage my BB, and has for many years. I’ve irrigated with:
• plain warm potable water,
• solutions of water and up to 10% hydrogen peroxide,
• solutions of water and dissolved table salt and baking soda, and
• solutions of water and vinegar.

In all cases the irrigation offered many hours of improvement, each with varying periods of lasting benefit. In my case the water & vinegar combination provides the longest lasting benefit. I’m not certain why. I speculate that the acid strips away biofilm denying any microorganisms a hiding place, thus stopping their ability to reestablish. The new oral ecology is started by cultures living in surrounding areas that communicate with my mouth, i.e. nose and throat, or in foods that I eat. These microorganisms are perhaps less offensive, therefore lowering oral VOCs, between time periods of irrigation.

I’ll further speculate that the other solutions, used for irrigation, may leave small-yet-sufficient colonies of BB-causing microorganisms in the depths of biofilms, which reestablish when irrigation ends.

For those who try irrigation with dilute vinegar, even once, you will notice a substantial removal of the coating that covers teeth – above, and below, the gumline. Warning: the use of acids with this method may harm tooth enamel. A one-time use; however, may be useful in identifying a method that make a beneficial difference.

[jamesmcavoy]

Hey halitosux , are you saying that u stay almost bb free using salt water ?
If yes then i can say that u put some sodium chlorite on that tiny hole ,it will heal soon

[jamesmcavoy]

At deebas ,
Purely oral bb is bacterial .
After cleaning mouth ,carry a bottle of sodium chlorite (mms) . Gargle every half an hour with it .
It is strongly antibacterial and provides great relief

Sorry for late ,u must have done with ur flight .

[halitosisux]

Thanks for both your replies.
Searching, What you've said fits in very well with my own understandings. It's interesting what you said about other surrounding areas that can communicate with your mouth, such as your mouth or nose or external contaminants. I suppose it depends on whether any underlying abnormality exists, such as gum pockets or sinus infection or unfavourable ecology, or whether you are simply susceptible in some way to having bad breath, for example through an immunological defect that would normally keep a person halitosis-free.

My belief is that for most people with BB of oral origin, there is a very fine line between having and not having bad breath. That fine line could be crossed by some tiny well-hidden reservoir somewhere that ensures the re-colonization of the microbial mix soon after any oral hygiene measures are undertaken to clean the mouth. It would explain how a broad range antimicrobial like chlorhexidine can still allow bad breath to reappear just a couple of hours later, when bacteria have managed to remain hidden like this. That's why I think irrigation is usually so effective, because it's able to flush areas that cannot be reached by any other way.


I've never tried irrigation with low pH liquids. I'll try vinegar next.
If anything, when experiments like this manage to completely eliminate odour, at least they prove that the odour is coming from nowhere other than the mouth or throat. But the underlying cause that allows the odour to be produced could lie elsewhere in the body.

James, thanks for the tip. I don't think it would heal that tiny hole, because the hole is where the tooth is nearly erupting from, it's not a hole due to infection.