What is the wisdom behind meeting others with bad breath?

[brightonguy]

Thanks for your message. Nasal odour is a relatively new concern for me, it seems to have crept up on me over the last few months. What would you recommend in terms of irrigation? I occassionally use salt water, I'm not sure how effective it is.

[stressedout]

you're very brave brightonguy!

[Scientist42]

The answer is simple. If you can smell bad breath in your every day life but have never smelled bad breath on the 40 members you've met, then the most likely answer is that just a handful of us here actually have halitosis.

Thanatos, I would like to keep an open verdict on this. I must admit, it is quite puzzling!

[halitosisux]

Brightonguy, I dont know anything about nasal irrigation, but there are plenty of people on here who do. I've seen it mentioned that there are videos on youtube that can explain what to do.
The reason I asked you the question is because if I suspected that I had an intermittent nasal odour, and nasal irrigation has any effect at all on this, then to me it would literally confirm something going on in the nose or sinuses. Even if irrigation made the problem worse, you know its something going on up there.

[Scientist42]

What does celebrate Xmas properly mean? If it means you all get drunk, throw caution to the wind and think "F**k off I don't care if alcohol increases halitosis by at least three different mechanisms, it's Christmas then it sounds good to me!"

YES, this is exactly what XMas means to us! It means F**k off I don't care if alcohol increases halitosis by at least three different mechanisms, it's Christmas!! Believe me, we get completely wasted! We eat and drink till night then dance till the early hours of the morning.

I couldn't believe the lives of our members would be so transformed by anything, but it is! Believe me, the girls and guys in our group party like there's no tomorrow! You will see what I mean in 3 weeks tme. It's a release.

[Scientist42]

This is news to me , so far I have had no problem smelling some really bad breath

Far be it from me to dismiss Arun's findings at his meet-ups but I have smelled and can smell at least one case of bb, mild or otherwise, on someone every day. I have also met up with someone on this forum and they most def did not have bb and they reassured me that neither do I. quote]

Hey dude, didn't it strike you as strange that you couldn't detect that other bb sufferer and he/she couldn't detect you?

[Scientist42]

Actually,some good can from these meet ups,specially if you are looking for a partner or a long term relationship.Then this can only be a good thing.
I suppose it's irrelevant if the rest of the world can smell if you have a loving and understanding partner to come home to...
Not perfect but better than being all alone - don't u think?

Hey firebreath, we have members who have quietly romanced with each other and are now engaged to be married!

[Hooch]

Hey dude, didn't it strike you as strange that you couldn't detect that other bb sufferer and he/she couldn't detect you?[/quote Scientist 42)

No,Arun it didn't strike me as strange...one because I don't have bb all the time and because the person I met most definitely did not smell. There is nothing wrong with my sense of smell...so no it wasn't odd..it was a relief

I really don't think (in my humble opinion and from experience) two people or however many people with bb cancel each other out...like you've said you can control yours for a limited amount of time so does it not stand to reason (and I'm really not negating anyones experience here) that when your group meets up if you can't smell one another that:
1. you are all having a good day 2. maybe you don't all have a chronic problem. 3. Some people are cured but just don't believe it.. because you say that some 10% of the group can be detected...does that not strike you as odd?? I'm not trying to be combatative here...I am just trying to understand... I think that even when we have been cured or the problem can be controlled or aleviated somewhat the psychological damage is done and we will never trust that we are ok.

[firebreath]

@ hooch , i kind of agree with you here.Many people complain about having room filling BB as well as having really fecal smelling breath and so on,but for whatever reason, and i must say absolutely no offense to anyone here but i do not believe all the people here smell as bad as they think they do.No i am not saying that they have halitophobia, or for a moment suggesting they are simply imagining it ,however they may indeed have a BB problem but , sometimes it may not smell so bad.
If there was a machine or some kind of device that could truly gauge exactly how bad our breath smelled on a scale of 1-100 (for example) then we could for sure know the real truth.Because no such device exists (correct me if i am wrong a halimeter? perhaps) then we will carry on assuming and speculating, maybe incorrectly at certain times.

[stressedout]

I think that even when we have been cured or the problem can be controlled or aleviated somewhat the psychological damage is done and we will never trust that we are ok.

That's so true Hooch. As long as one can still work their brain using this logic, there is more hope to "be cured" than for those that convince themselves that for example BB sufferers "cancel" each other.

As for halitophobia, most of BB sufferers have it, it can exist along with BB or without. It simply gets developed after someone learns about their BB. If BB can't be helped for too long, the phobia grows bigger. Halitophobia = fear of having BB. How many of us can say they dont have this fear? As long as day to day thinking about BB exists, halitophobia goes on. People who dont think about their breath, dont think of it for most of the time, after brushing their teeth in the morning, they just go on with their day until they brush their teeth at night.

[jane]

LISTEN: take into consideration that most of us have developed a special way of speaking also, a way in which we speak very softly or not as "breathy" as normal people do. most of us have done it for years- unless we're really comfortable at these meetups, we're still going to speak that way although we may want to relax our throats and such. this makes it really hard for others to detect your bb.

also, a LOT of people have intermittent bb, which will release a smell for a few seconds and then disappear ie. from tonsil stones or drainage from a bad tooth. in my case (tonsil stones in lingual tonsils) i know what side the stone's on, and i can talk a certain way to not expose the stone thus having no bad breath as long as i can keep my tonsils in that position. the way tonsil stones work is they can switch from being fully exposed to hidden or covered by tonsil tissue several times throughout the day, depending on the formation of one's tonsils. most of us had tried so many different irrigation methods and harsh mouthwashes that we semi- permanently changed our tonsil formation, making it EXTREMELY hard for the stones to just pop out. most normal people that get tonil stones who dont pay attention to their bb have the stones just fly out when they cough, sneeze, or gargle. for people like us, it takes longer than usual to get them out.

[jane]

Actually,some good can from these meet ups,specially if you are looking for a partner or a long term relationship.Then this can only be a good thing.
I suppose it's irrelevant if the rest of the world can smell if you have a loving and understanding partner to come home to...
Not perfect but better than being all alone - don't u think?

Hey firebreath, we have members who have quietly romanced with each other and are now engaged to be married!

that's beautiful! whether people can smell others' bb or not, these meetups should still happen. a day for people to relax, socialize, and have fun is a wonderful thing for us. wish they we're held in ny too.

[brightonguy]

LISTEN: take into consideration that most of us have developed a special way of speaking also, a way in which we speak very softly or not as "breathy" as normal people do. most of us have done it for years- unless we're really comfortable at these meetups, we're still going to speak that way although we may want to relax our throats and such. this makes it really hard for others to detect your bb.

I've done exactly the opposite when I've met people off this forum. If anyone's gonna give you an honest opinion about how badly you smell it's fellow sufferers because only they understand that all the lies just make the whole thing worse. And what better way for them to gauge if / how badly you smell than by talking like a normal person, not avoiding close contact like a normal person. That's another good reason to meet fellow sufferers - YOU CAN ACT NORMALLY, IT'S GREAT! I would never lie to anyone about how bad their breath is, never never never. Like I just said, it's the lies that have driven me to distraction. If I could have found someone sooner to be honest with me about how badly i smell then I would have figured out sooner that it isn't there all the time.

[Hooch]

[quote="jane"]LISTEN: take into consideration that most of us have developed a special way of speaking also, a way in which we speak very softly or not as "breathy" as normal people do. most of us have done it for years- unless we're really comfortable at these meetups, we're still going to speak that way although we may want to relax our throats and such. this makes it really hard for others to detect your bb.


Errrrr...doesn't matter how softly you speak or breathe....if you have bb the very fact of breathing means people will smell you...the clue is in the title... it's called bad BREATH..soft or otherwise. Sorry to be harsh but we really can send ourselves loopy thinking about stealthy ways to conceal our problem.
AND..speaking softly means people can't hear you...so they lean in closer..ergo getting their hair blown back even further from the stench

[Haligone]

I hope i do not offend any of my like breathed fellows here, But , I cannot understand the point of these 'meet ups'.
Personally , if i smell someone else's breath , it totally breaks my heart and makes me even more aware of how bad i really smell.

Can those that have had meet ups please enlighten me on what exactly happened and what benefit was gained - in the hope of persuading someone like me to meet up?

I have not yet met anyone from the forum yet, but I would like to.
It is very confusing for me cos a lot of the time I feel absolutely fine, and I cannot smell anything, but as soon as I talk, I get reactions.

So its either that I have become used to my smell, or I have a bad sense of smell, and I cannot tell truely how bad it is.

I have asked a few people (friends, family etc) and they have all said they do not notice anything, but let me open my mouth to say one word at work, and everybody's hand is on their nose!!.

By meeting someone from the forum, the person already knows I know I have BB, and also know I am looking for an honest answer and therefore know I will not be offended by the truth. I am hoping they would be honest enough to give me an objective answer and tell me whether in their opinion, it is really bad, whether they can smell it when I breathe with my mouth shut, or only when I talk.....or for instance, what my breath smells like after I have eaten something like a pack of crisps, whether it helps at all if I rinse my mouth with some mouthwash or whether it makes it slightly better or the same...... if it makes it better, how long this lasts....... whether there is any change if I rinse with hydrogen peroxide etc etc. So during this meet-up I will aim to sit across the person at a normal table, talk normally, act normally do everything as I normally do, and then get feedback from them.

For this reason, an event like the one being organised by scientist does not really appeal to me, as I feel other smells in the pub etc could distort the BB and therby the feedback I receive. I am not looking at socialising as the main point of the meet-up. To me, it is part of the 'gathering evidence' process and I will also look to provide honest feedback to whoever I meet.

I guess everyone is different...... you state in your post (quoted above) that "Personally , if i smell someone else's breath , it totally breaks my heart and makes me even more aware of how bad i really smell"...... my layman observation from this is that you prefer not to know about your BB (forgive me if I am totally wrong, as I said, its a layman's observation), I am exactly the opposite, I would love nothing more than to have an objective assessment of my BB.
My ideal scenario would be to be working with someone who can tell me when I am having a good day, alert me whenever the BB is worsening, let me know whether steps I take to manage the BB during the day are working etc.......