Can you feel/smell your own bad breath?

[bbuk]

During my years of suffering from halitosis, the only time I would not be able to know if I have bad breath was when I had a cold/flu. When I have a cold, due to my blocked nose I am unable to smell my bad breath. For some reason, when I have a cold I also cannot feel the sticky feeling in my mouth usually associated with my bad breath. However, when I have a cold I know I definitely have bad breath.

This is because even people who do not suffer from halitosis even have bad breath when they have colds.

I have just recovered from a cold (3 weeks now) and for some reason I cannot smell or feel my bad breath any more even if I try. I dont have a blocked nose now so should be able to smell it. I also no longer get the bad breath feeling in mouth to remind me of my problem.

Am I cured? I'd like to hope so but the fact that I can't even smell my morning breath (which I know should definitely be there) first thing when I wake up makes me think something has happened.

Have I now simply got the halitosis condition where I cant even detect if I have it? As mentioned previously I would normally be able to feel my halitosis from the condition of my mouth. I would also be able to smell it if I went to test for it. Nowadays, I cannot detect my problem.

Are most people able to feel/smell their own condition.

Anyone know why I no longer can detect bad breath on myself?

[Renato]

That is interesting, since most of the people including myself we cannot detect our bad breath, we usually require from others to know about our BB condition (from a relative or based in the reaction of the people).

I would wish to detect my BB somehow to know my real breath condition when talking to somebody, that way I would control my BB at least for a while by trying any method discussed here.

[bbuk]

I didnt realise most people cant smell their own bad breath. Mine was so bad that I could taste it let alone smell it. It must be very difficult to manage if you dont even know when you have it.

Anyway back to this post. The reason why I cant smell or feel my own bad breath anymore is likely because I am suddenly cured. I just asked my girlfriend to check if she could smell anything and she said no. I stood face to face with her and spoke to her for 30 seconds and she confirmed she could not smell anything.

I dont want to tempt fate but after many years suffering this terrible condition I hope this is finally it.

Like I said my mouth now feels normal and fresh all the time and even when I smell my breath I cannot smell anything. Believe I have tried breathing into anything that would reflect the breath but nothing.

I dont know what has happened since but thinking about it I believe my gums could have been the culprit alongside my impacted wisdom tooth and my tonsils.

As mentioned on a previous post removing my wisdom tooth and tonsils enabled me to get to a stage where I could at least get fresh breath albeit for a period of 1 to 2 hours before the need to brush, floss and gargle mouthwash.

Since then I visited a private dentist and asked for a deep clean. This is where they inject anaesthetic into your gums and give your teeth a really good once over right underneath your gums etc. I had to do each half on different days due the extensiveness of the cleaning but I did notice that they removed alot of crap from between my gums. Right after this clean I remember my mouth being full of blood, very smelly and very sore. However, it was significantly cleaner once everything had a chance to heal.

This was done 3 months ago and I have noticed that my gums do not bleed anymore. I am guessing that after three months the gums have had a chance to heal and close up right between the teeth. The hole in my gum left from removal of the wisdom tooth has also recently just fully healed.

I cannot explain my current situation other than what I have already mentioned.

I am just happy right now and hope it isnt only a temporary thing. It is very unusual that my fresh breath came after recovering from a cold a time where my breath would normally be at its worse.

[bbuk]

One extra thing I will add is that my morning breath is almost non existant. i.e when I get up in the morning my breath is only very very faint. It hardly smells and I think I can probably get away with talking to someone without causing offence even without brushing my teeth first thing. It is because of this why I am worried that maybe I am not cured.

How the hell do I no longer have morning breath. Everyone has morning breath right? even those who dont suffer from bad breath.

I guess time will tell. Will get a friend to smell my breath later in the week when I meet him.

[Renato]

bbuk, did you take antibiotics during your cold period?.

[bbuk]

No, I did not take any antibiotics or any other medication.

The only thing I did use is the Vicks Nasal Inhaler stick thing to help stop the nose constantly running.

I wonder if excessive use of the Vicks inhaler may have affected my smelling abilitites. I dont think so because I can smell all other smells, just not my bad breath.

Will get my girlfriend to test my breath again tonight when I get back from work.

[terranpatriot]

hey bbuk,

did you have post nasal drip/mucus dripping down the back of your throat as a chronic condition? also, what medicines did you take for your cold and how consistently did you take them?

[bbuk]

Like I said, I didnt take any medicines. I dont take any medicines in general unless things are really bad. I do not class a cold or the flu as a bad condition and would never usually take anything for them.

The only thing I do use is a vicks minty inhaler which isnt really a medicine. I find this helps my runny nose and thus makes the cold more bearable.

I dont suffer from any post natal drip problems or at least I dont think I do. My breath has never smelt when breathing through my nose and I dont have excessive mucous production.

What else is a sympton of PND?

Perhaps drying my nostril out with the vicks inhaler removed any small PND I may have had that I didnt realise I had.

Anyway, my breath is fresh again today although I was able to taste blood later in the day which made it less fresh. Might have been over zealous tongue scraping after lunch.

I am still feeling good and somewhat hopefull that I am cured.

Girlfriend again confirmed no smell.

[halitosisux]

hi bbuk,
You had some serious dental work done, all of which are likely to be responsible for causing your BB. To have had the deep cleaning you would have required it, and now that you have there is every possibility that this has been your cause.

All you can do for now is wait and see and keep your fingers crossed. I hope that you have succeeded.

[carrie]

It seems to me that if the bad breath occurs again, you can schedule an appointment and get another deep cleaning, as the deep cleaning surely helped heal your bad breath. Some dental plans even cover a few deep cleanings a year.