What's worked for me ... warning - long post!

[halitosisux]

Poupidou, the Waterpik question was aimed at you. I'm sorry I didnt realise you have the Panasonic one.

I'm just surprised that nobody has ever mentioned this Waterpik tongue cleaning attachment before. Based on how good irrigation has proved itself to be for flossing, I would imagine that a water-jet based tongue cleaning system would be extremely effective and the least damaging to the tongue surface. The important thing when it comes to cleaning the tongue is getting as deep between the tongue papillae as possible and removing as much as possible lurking deep down there.

Scraping the tongue only damages the papillae and leads to the tongue producing a thicker and harder to remove coating.

[searching]

The use of an oral irrigation brush, used to cleanse the tongue, works well; and, it is more-gentle versus scraping.

It is described here at the bottom of the page.

[Poupidou]

Indeed I have a Panasonic. Mainly I chose it because it is portable, and I have a boyfriend who lives 150 miles away from me (NOT because of my breath I might hasten to add - it's not THAT bad), so I need something I can transport around. It has proven itself to be an excellent piece of kit.

If they made a little tongue irrigator you could travel with, I'd definitely get one. Weirdly though, I've found that the thing which works best for me during tongue cleaning is just an ordinary toothbrush and toothpaste. I don't know why. I use an Orabrush and Tung Brush too which are both helpful in removing any coating, but for the past couple of weeks I've noticed I don't really have a coating anymore. It only appears at the sides now (right next to my shitty wisdom teeth) and is visible by the time I go to bed, but not long before usually. I'm definitely much fresher now, for most of the day.

searching's tongue attachment does look quite good, and I am a bit worried that such rigorous tongue cleaning may eventually lead to that horrible-sounding condition 'burning tongue syndrome' so it's definitely something I would consider.

I saw a few posts somewhere on here where people were discussing whether they had the balls to post pictures of themselves. How about if everyone just posted a picture of their teeth and tongue? I bet lots of us would be able to give advice to others based on our own experiences.

[halitosisux]

Searching, thanks for the info. I've just read through the entire thread and didn't realise at the time you that you mentioned the "tongue scraper" attachment.

It's good to know you are still around. What's the latest regarding your BB?

Has anyone ever tried irrigating with chlorhexidine gluconate? Dolittle mentioned a treatment stage for gum/periodontal disease involving nukeing the microorganisms of the mouth with a chlorhexidine irrigation.

Chlorhexidine is active against far more of the microorganisms in the mouth than hydrogen peroxide, including the fungi and yeasts which may be playing a role in causing bad breath.

There are ways to prevent tooth staining from chlorhexidine, such as ensuring that you do not brush teeth within a certain time of chlorhexidine exposure in the mouth.

Part of the treatment for Blis-K12 involves rinsing with chlorhexidine. I'm so impressed with the ability of a Waterpik at preventing flossing odours even with plain water, that I think bacteria could be impossible to reach in certain areas of the mouth by just rinsing with chlorhexidine. Maybe by nukeing the mouth with chlorhexidine irrigation, and possibly with the eventual help of oral probiotics, this could help some people who believe their BB may have started from the use of antibiotics or been in a situation which has caused a bacterial imbalance in the mouth, such as the guy who suddenly developed BB after sucking and licking various areas of the female anatomy.

If that Anne Bosey woman can apparently do so well with antibiotic mouth rinse treatments, then surely if chlorhexidine can reach all the hidden areas, then it's going to be just as effective as any antibiotic, if not even more so?

Most supermarkets in the UK sell Chlorhexidine for about £3 - £4. To start with it could be used straight from the bottle, and if its effective it could gradually be diluted.

Anyone who has an irrigator, I think this is well worth a try.

Poupidou, that's interesting about the tongue coating on the side of your bad wisdom tooth. Good to hear you are more fresher too. That's exactly what happened with me too, once I started syringing my wisdom pocket. The BB was by no means gone, but it was the improvement I noticed which gave me the impetus and confidence to go ahead with the extraction.

I made lots of pictures of my mouth to give to a certain person on here for scientific research, I'll have to try to find them. I had some pictures of my wisdom tooth too, but I can't find them.

[Cauterize]

Hi.

This post is definitely not going to help everybody. Possibly, it will help nobody! It's just my personal story, from which people are welcome to draw advice/methods should they wish to.

First off, I do not naturally have AWFUL breath. What I've found is that I seem to develop a breath odour quicker than others do, and a stronger breath odour than others' at that. I had little idea why this might be, until around two weeks ago when I started seriously investigating my mouth and all therein, because it was really starting to get on my nerves, and had been progressively growing worse for years.

I think my problem with my breath really started when I was around 16 years old (I'm 24 now). My breath odour has never been chronically strong (I can't fill rooms or smell myself when I talk), but I was always aware when it smelt, due to a bad taste in my mouth and various other factors.

I know that when it smelt, which was probably 95% of the time, it smelt quite unpleasant.

I have really good teeth and gums. I've never had a filling or any sort of dental procedure, and my teeth are straight and a nice colour. I see a dentist every six months who has never noted any problem with me - and never noticed the smell of my breath, because after brushing, I could usually stay fresh for about an hour. So I fooled him every time.

People who think that having good teeth naturally entitles you to good breath are both a. ignorant and b. annoying. The same applies to those who believe anyone whose breath smells must not follow a good oral hygiene routine. I looked after my mouth really well and STILL I kept developing this idiotic smell, no matter how much I brushed, scraped, flossed, gargled and scrubbed. So I embarked upon a mission to get to the root of my problem, and here's what I have discovered:

- I have a fairly dry mouth, and definitely need to drink my 8 glasses of water a day (I was previously drinking around 3 a day or even less - bad I know).
- I have long tongue papillae. Some people are lucky enough to have smooth tongues, but I'm a Yeti by comparison.
- I have a partially erupted wisdom tooth - as others have said on here, this is ABSOLUTELY something worth investigating.

The first two problems were easy enough to remedy. Drinking lots of water is only going to do you good (as long as you're not drowning yourself with the stuff) and it really helps with dryness-induced odour. As for the tongue, I just make sure I'm extra vigilant when cleaning it - Orabrush, followed by a good scrub with a manual toothbrush and toothpaste, followed again by the Orabrush, and finished up with a spot of Tung Gel on a Tung Brush (rinsing in between these steps of course).

I found very quickly that if I did this morning and evening, and gave my tongue a quick scrub after meals, I could keep it really clean. Previously, although I used an Orabrush, it would develop a fairly noticeable coating at the back and in two strips along the sides. And it stank. Even more so if I ate, and the food debris got stuck to the existing coating for all those stupid bacteria to enjoy further.

But what I really wanted to know was WHY my tongue stank. Obviously, there was an overgrowth of bacteria in my mouth for some reason, which was allowing these microbes to feast so indulgently on my poor tongue and make me pong. Enter my wisdom tooth.

As I said before, my problems started when I was about 16 - the exact same time my wisdom teeth began to erupt. First it was the upper ones, which took a couple of years to come through ... I hate to think of all the rubbish they were trapping until they finally erupted entirely. Around 2008, my left lower wisdom tooth began to appear. This is when I started to notice that if I touched the gum covering it, my finger would smell awful. I got by with the use of interdental brushes, inserting one into the space and moving it around a bit (bringing it out smelling like death) - with hindsight, this probably didn't help my breath much at all, but at the time I didn't realise that the bacteria feeding on the food trap of my wisdom tooth were causing all the other problems in my mouth. Eventually, that tooth came through too and I was acceptable ... for a while ...

This last one, on the right side of my jaw, is the worst. It's been sitting in the same position now for at least two years, with a piece of gum covering it. There are a couple of reasons why I can be sure it was definitely this tooth that was causing my bad breath. Firstly, the coating and bad taste on my tongue was far worse on this side. I also recently managed to pull almost 30 tiny tonsil stones, around poppy seed size, out of a crypt behind my right tonsil. I got two out of the left one. And I know this wisdom tooth seeping its sewage into my mouth and down my throat all the time is to blame!

Wisdom teeth are horrible. Even if yours are fully erupted, if you suspect they may be trapping food and other gunge, consider having them removed. I should be getting all of mine out sometime this year, and I can't wait. Until then, I'm using my Panasonic EW-DJ40 oral irrigator to flush out the space every day, sometimes two, three, even four times a day. I've been doing all this now for around two weeks, and it's really working. The smell that comes from that tooth when irrigating, however, is inhuman, but getting it out at least means other people won't have to smell it. I am so looking forward to having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled so I can finally relax.

I'm pretty sure your tonsil stones bring that awful smell remove your wisdom tooth and keep clean your tonsils and you wont have bb

[Poupidou]

Yup, I'm pretty sure they contribute too. Can't wait to get these shitty teeth out.

[Poupidou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

Yesterday, I went under general anaesthetic to have all four of my pesky wisdom teeth removed. Around half/three quarters of an hour after receiving the medicine through my cannula, I woke up in recovery with two enormous wads of gauze between my jaws and a rather sore throat, not to mention an almost entirely numb face. I drank some water and squash in the hospital. Two hours later I went home.

How do I feel? My jaw is a little stiff and the spaces where my teeth were are bleeding a bit. The lower sockets are twice as painful as the upper sockets, I suspect due to the fact that the lower teeth had to be cut or broken to be removed. I can't really open my mouth much. I have four sets of dissolvable stitches, which I feel I am tugging rather unpleasantly on when I swallow, so I am trying not to. I am on strong co-codamol which is making me very drowsy. Eating hurts - so far I've managed scrambled egg, spaghetti hoops and mashed potato. I feel like some food may be getting tangled in my stitches or stuck in my sockets, which isn't very nice, but I will be able to do a salt water rinse at around 5 pm, so I am looking forward to that.

And my mouth? Already it feels so much cleaner. I haven't brushed my teeth since yesterday morning and I can detect no unpleasant taste or smell as yet, except from the blood which is occasionally escaping from my wounds. Can't really open my mouth enough to see my entire tongue but I can get a look at most of it. The areas at the sides which previously looked coated and dry are now smooth and clean. I'm really impressed, as I always suspected my wisdom teeth were the problem, but I didn't ever think that removing them could have such a quick effect!

If anyone has any questions about my experience, please ask away.

[halitosisux]

It's a bit early to comment, but good luck with your outcome and please continue updating!

[Poupidou]

Hello folks,

So, it's been nearly 2 years since I had my wisdom teeth removed and I'm happy to report that it worked for me. I have no issue with my breath whatsoever these days.

My oral routine is a simple combination of brushing and tongue-scraping, twice a day. This is plenty.

At the time of my last post, I'd just started seeing a new guy, so we are coming up to two years together now, and welcomed a beautiful baby girl last year.

Not so long ago, my partner was talking about a friend's ex, saying she had a mouth that smelt 'like a graveyard'. Then, without any prompting or questions from me, he informed me that I have never had a graveyard mouth. So I think I can be confident that getting my wisdom teeth removed was the right thing to do.

Hope everyone else is doing good.

[Trunks99]

Hello folks,

So, it's been nearly 2 years since I had my wisdom teeth removed and I'm happy to report that it worked for me. I have no issue with my breath whatsoever these days.

My oral routine is a simple combination of brushing and tongue-scraping, twice a day. This is plenty.

At the time of my last post, I'd just started seeing a new guy, so we are coming up to two years together now, and welcomed a beautiful baby girl last year.

Not so long ago, my partner was talking about a friend's ex, saying she had a mouth that smelt 'like a graveyard'. Then, without any prompting or questions from me, he informed me that I have never had a graveyard mouth. So I think I can be confident that getting my wisdom teeth removed was the right thing to do.

Hope everyone else is doing good.

I'm glad things are working out for you and congratulation for the baby.