The Story So Far

Michael123 · Post by **Michael123** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:37 pm

Hi everybody,

I was feeling desperate as usual today, looking for cures on the internet when I discovered this site. I don't know exactly what I'd like to get out of this site; maybe some extra comfort and strength. But I've joined now and I'll come straight to the obvious point: I've got bad breath and there's nothing I can do about it.

I don't want to make this too depressing for anyone who reads it (if anyone reads it). I just wanted to introduce myself and give a little of my story.

Firstly my heart goes out to each and every one of you; and I know that none of us deserves to have been dealt this card. But we've got it and that's that I suppose.

I'm desperate some days, some days I'm okay. I have many interest including: golf, snooker, films, books, sitcoms, cricket, science fiction and music. This sounds like an ad in a lonely hearts column! Maybe I've got the wrong idea with this site, but I'm just trying to make new friends (even if it is only online) and find people to talk about this hateful bad breath. I can't talk about it with anyone else.

I'm very lonely and really need something else in my life right now. People to sympathise with me I suppose. Already I'm feeling the familiar worries about being rejected yet again.

My story will seem all too familiar to you all (pain, humiliation, depression, social anxiety and so forth) so I'll spare you all the depressing details. But I'm 21, have been aware of this problem for about nine years and I've lost almost everything that gave my life any meaning. I'm at uni (still there in the third year amzingly), and am taking the first tentative steps towards alcoholism. Suicidal feelings continue to plague me. If anyone feels like responding please do.

Good luck to all of you. I hope to God that we all get cured one day; can make love to beautiful people, have adoring families, live in amazing houses, laugh out loud with tons of friends in the busiest clubs.

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:03 pm

Hi Michael,
I hope that you might find some connection to your own problem by reading through the forum and that it may eventually lead you to the cause of your own particular case. Post as much history/information as you can.
Good luck.

Michael123 · Post by **Michael123** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:23 pm

Thanks for replying halitosisux,

The cause of my problem is really baffling to me. I'm 90% sure that the cause of my bad breath is mouth bacteria. Last year I took a large step in reducing it thankfully.

Through ignorance (no one ever told me and it never occured to me) I never cleaned the very back of my tongue (past my gag reflex). I've had encouraging results by scrubbing as vigorously as possible all over the back of my tongue. Last year I was brushing my mouth between 20 and 30 times a day, sometimes more.

It hasn't cured me though, even if it has reduced it by about 70-80%. This is great as it makes my life liveable. It is not sustainable though. The only way I can make my breath decent is to scrub my tongue so hard and fast that it bleeds alot. I can barely stand the pain of my tongue at the moment and when I brush lightly my breath is much worse. I've run out of ideas frankly. I'm sure that I clean my tongue as well as anyone alive, so what's the problem?

I have another theory though, in that it might be related to my bowels. I ate tons of sugar and junk food when I started high school 10 years ago and have suffered with bowel trouble ever since. I've been thinking that my system might need to be cleansed by a colon cleaning. That might eliminate toxicity in my body. But I'm only guessing again.

Anyway thanks for responding. All the best.

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:47 pm

Michael,
I know what a relief it feels to share your story with others in the same boat, im a relative newbie on here too, and before stumbling onto this site i felt like the only person on the planet who actually suffers because of this problem, even though i knew plenty of people with BB. You are welcome to any advice i may be able to offer. Fortunately for me after over two decades of life with bad breath, i managed to discover and eventually deal with the cause of my problem recently - its a long contorted story where everything became so wrapped up in itself, but i made it in the end. I wish you all the best.

This is my theory of what caused my problem, with advice, in the hope it may help you to make any connections to your own situation. I apologise if i sound patronising at times, but its only for reasons of clarity for anyone reading it. Its mostly common knowledge, but when you feel as though you've tried everything, you tend to conclude its something much deeper. But there's no reason why it should be.

EVERYONE has similar bacteria (400 of such species approx) on their tongue which would cause perceivable odour (to others) there if we didnt have saliva, oxygen and the mechanical abrasion from eating. The papillae (hairy looking carpet on the tongue surface) create an anaerobic breeding ground for these bacteria to thrive there so that they mix with the food we chew which is an essential part of the digestive process.
During sleep for example, when all of this slows right down, the bacteria there are then free to go wild and cause a buildup of chemicals that STINK. This happens with EVERYONE to a certain degree.

So, firstly, no amount of tongue brushing is going to deal with this situation, because no matter what you do it wont make a dent on the bacteria themselves (not for long anyway). All you can do is reduce the anaerobic area which they colonize - the "carpet" by using a TONGUE SCRAPER (if you dont already use one) - don't use a toothbrush - and GENTLY "shave" away this carpet. Do this twice a day. Do nothing else because its futile, and over time it will only make the situation worse.

Now, if this happens while we sleep, then dehydration in the mouth for example during the day will have the same effect, so too will fasting. Stress causes dehydration and the breath to stink very quickly for anyone.
So, how come if this is true for everyone, most people manage to have have clean breath while they are awake?? Well, that, i believe, is simply because those of us who dont have clean breath, have some other area of bacterial activity going on elsewhere which NEVER ceases, and the foul odours from which (and other species of bacteria) then find their way into the mouth (where its all interconnected of course) and onto the absorbant surface of the tongue, irrespective of whatever bacterial activity already going on there.
This is commonly from either the nose/sinuses or VERY COMMONLY from the dental regions, but it can also be from the tonsils/adenoids IF they truly are infected.
Some people refuse to accept this, even when its clear something bacterial is happening inside their sinuses. Something bacterial in the sinuses can also occur without any clear symptoms.
Certain bad breath odours have nothing to do with the odours on the tongue because they dont originate from there - problems with the esophagus, stomach (acid reflux), lungs can produce their own odours. Certain systemic problems can also produce their own odours, which can be exhaled through the lungs or find their way into the saliva.

This is what happened with me anyway. I went from being someone who thought they were born with this problem to being 100% free of it, based on the pathways described above.

Laptop · Post by **Laptop** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:14 am

What specific steps did you take, other than the tongue scraping?

Michael123 · Post by **Michael123** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:47 am

Hello again halitosisux,

Thanks for the advice. I've tried tongue scraping and it works for about 10 seconds. For 10 seconds or so I'm completely free of bad breath. But the bacteria I scrape away simply come back. It's weird. All the evidence confirms that my bad breath comes from the surface of my tongue. I'm thinking that my tongue is unusually cracked and grooved, and therefore more bacteria get stuck in those cracks. That's my theory at the moment anyway. So anything I do is futile in the extreme.

Michael123 · Post by **Michael123** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:54 am

Hi Laptop,

Thanks for replying. I soon realised that tongue scraping wasn't effective for me at all really. The scraping removes a layer of bacteria, leaving me odourless, only to be replaced by more bacteria. Brushing hard is the only thing that reduces it for me. Last year I discovered that a great amount of the bacteria was at the very back of my tongue. But the bad breath persists even though I brush all of my tongue. There's no layer of white on my tongue anymore, but bacteria obviously remain.

I got all my initial info about my tongue from the Therabreath website. Even though the product's didn't work for me, all the info was very useful and added up.I know it's a problem in my mouth, obviously it's still not clean enough. What do you think is causing your problem?

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:22 pm

Michael,
Im aware that deep grooves, particularly in the centre of the tongue can create enough of an anaerobic trap to cause quite serious BB. I wonder if anyone could medically confirm for you whether this is true in your case? and if so, whether some form of surgery could correct it?