My experience with the Kiss Me meter

[cursedandblessed]

Hi! This is my first time posting but I have followed this site for a while. I have learned so much from here. It is nice to know that I'm not alone with this curse.

I have never been able to ask anyone to check my breath because it is too humiliating. So I'd try new "cures" but could never tell what was working or not. I just could not bring myself to ask anyone including my husband.

I bought the Kiss Me Meter for $19.99 after seeing it on the Rachel Ray show. At first I thought it was broken because it kept telling me that I had good breath and I KNEW that wasn't true. But after maybe acclimatizing to my environment or maybe having learned to use it properly, it started to give me the readings I dreaded. My breath seems to vary between "Maybe" to "Poor" to "Bad". I am going to wear it out because I check so often only to be depressed by the results.

The Kiss Me Meter is good as a check to see if something you are trying is working. It is like a gift and a curse because it seems to give accurate readings of my breath but depressing because it tells me that my breath isn't great no matter what I try!

I am glad to have it though as a measuring stick for the "cures" I will inevitably keep trying.

Just thought I'd let people who are too humiliated to ask anyone that there is something that might help us figure it out for ourselves.

[stressedout]

I have this device and the reason it is garbage is that it gave me "green" as the freshest breath after i just ate 2 or 3 raw cloves of garlic, now how can that be? LOL It used to give me more varying results months ago, now mostly gives me green, even upon awaking. I might have been able to believe and think i am fine if it didnt give me same green after raw garlic? Waste of money.

[halitosisux]

I dont think those things are accurate enough to tell you anything reliably. Even a halimeter based roughly on the same technology but costing $$$$s more can be completely inaccurate at actually diagnosing whether a person has bad breath or not because its only measuring certain types of gas that are only sometimes associated with having BB. Read what Aydinmur says about VSCs given off by various common items. If you eat certain types of food it can give high VSC readings for hours after - and your breath could merely smell of that food item, but the reading will be telling you that you have bad breath - totally misleading information.

And even a low VSC reading from a halimeter wont mean anything if you are producing foul gasses that a halimeter is incapable of detecting.

[cursedandblessed]

I've only had mine about a week, so maybe it'll fizzle out and not work anymore too. I hope not.

I understand that this and the expensive halimeters report strong odors of food as bb and that they might not detect certain gases. I'm under no illusion. But for me, having been just too proud/stupid/sensitivescared to ever ask anyone, it gives me some hint.

It confirms what I knew to be true that I have bb. I needed to know for certain and now I do. Also, for as long as it works, I think it'll help me test whether different cures help or hinder by providing me a relative measurement.

I got a rude awakening with this device too. I thought that if my mouth felt cleaner (as it does on Smartmouth) as opposed to tasting sour or having foamy spit , that I was safe. That isn't the case. So now I won't embarrass myself by speaking closely to people thinking my breath is fine when it isn't.

As with everything in this bb nightmare, not all things work for everyone. For now, I'm happy that I have some contraption that measures how bad my bb is. I plan to use it test out some of the other suggestions members have made.

Thanks to everyone on this site who participates in the forums for sharing your experiences. It really helps to cope with this horrible affliction.

[stressedout]

cursedandblessed,

you should not be relying on this device at all, im reading you say that you got a rude awaking with this device, this device could be sending you the wrong path if you just rely on it. if it does not detect garlic and tells me im so fresh LOL how is it not possible it tells you that you are not so fresh while you could be fine? listen i played with it in the past (now is just dumped somewhere in a drawer), it would give me the worst breath reading right after i gargled with some mouthwash, we know mouthwash smell is not BB, it is strong minty or whatever, but is not BB, so it even rated that kind of smell as not fresh? does not make sense. i dont know how it works anymore.

i encourage you to speak to your husband, that is difficult to be living next to someone who is supposed to be your best friend and he has no idea you are in such pain over it, if we can't talk to our closest people about what bothers us, how can there be life? imagine if he knew you are hiding this from him, he would start thinking you would not tell him if he started getting bad breath, know what i mean? he could release you from this torture, or if there is any odor, he could help you to identify what works for you. some people are alone in this. good luck.

[cursedandblessed]

Thank you stressout. Your post is very encouraging. I will try to work up the courage to discuss this openly with my husband. As you mentioned, it isn't as if he doesn't know about my condition given that he lives with it every day.

[stressedout]

one more advice - when you do ask, look him in the eye, dont be uncomfortable or you will make him, and ask him to give you the pure truth as it is extremely important to you. he is on your side, and im sure you would be there for him if he had this problem. no one is protected from it. in fact its your luck you have him to guide you through.

[brightonguy]

I had one of these gizmos... I binned it, totaly useless. After you gargle with mouthwash, you score as bad breath simply because it does not have the functionality to distinguish between good and bad smells.

[cool]

i have experience with the tanita fresh kiss which i would think is probably based on the same principle.

i am really unsure about its effectivity but its clearly stated in the manual that it wont detect garlic smells and it will be inaccurate directly after using a mouthwash for example.

[stressedout]

hey cool,

makes sense then. do you believe its effective about picking up regular BB? still use it?

[cool]

hey cool,

makes sense then. do you believe its effective about picking up regular BB? still use it?

i experimented with this device for i would say 8 years (not all the time but from time to time) but its still very hard to tell if its effective.

from what i found out its very easily irritated by any other kind of smell so if the room you use it in has any odor it might irritate the measurement.
and although the manual tells it wont detect anything food related im notz really sure about that.
to me it doesnt detect garlic but i think it does indeed detect some spicy foods.
beer will be very noticable in its reading, i would say alcohol at all will falsen the measurement.
and it might depend on the style you blow into it, if you blow hard or soft.

i am not quite sure about how this measurement does work, my device is about 8 years old, dont i have to clean it in any way to have it work properly?!
how long will you have to wait between everytime you use it to get proper results?!

down to logic i would say its recommended to have your mouth closed quite a time to let any odor be given the chance to build up, but those are just theories i came up with.

at all im really unsure about its effectifitiy but i would not say its completely useless.
i would say to ask somebody else if you have bad breath is still one of the best ways to figure.

i would say another good test might(!) be to inspect your mouth by yourself:

what does your tongue smell like?
what does the rear end of your tongue smell like?
what does your floss smell like, what does your interdental brush smell like?
what does your tonsils smell like?
try each with a fresh cotton peace or a q-tip. if its all fine i would say its a more reliable result than that testing device.

but on the other side, i am not sure what intense of odor you might detect while doing these tests really leads to bb.

but those are just my theories...

[stressedout]

hey, thanks! you know what i also thought - i read somewhere that when we breath out the odor is less detected, because when we speak some other oral structures are used that moment, and thats when the odor is released, so instead of blowing into the unit try speaking to it?

[cool]

hey, thanks! you know what i also thought - i read somewhere that when we breath out the odor is less detected, because when we speak some other oral structures are used that moment, and thats when the odor is released, so instead of blowing into the unit try speaking to it?

from my experience with people with bb that does indeed make sense.