Is this psychological?

[brightonguy]

Sorry guys I just don't but this line on saliva. My own personal experience (having suffered from a very dry mouth) and the literature on the subject simpy does not support the idea that saliva is that important for BB. To reiterate, on average, if you've got a very dry mouth (<1.5 ml in 15 mins) then in VSC terms we're talking about 150 ppb compared to 50-60 ppb for mouths that are not dry or just not very dry. 150 ppb is not killer bad breath that induces frantic reactions off people!

So, if your mouth is very dry (<1.5 ml in 15 mins) and you get frantic reactions from people then if and when your mouth becomes less dry then, yes, your breath may improve somewhat but not massively so. There are other things going on too to cause your BB!!

I know people with dry mouths, it's common, some of them have mild BB i.e. in the 150 ppb VSC vacinity but like I say that's not particularly bad.

In terms of Listerine, I agree. Personally, I had a spell recently where I was using it but as I've documented in other posts my routine now just consists of flossing twice a day and manual brushing twice a day. Actually, I gargle with probiotics before going to bed which seems to help.

[OneDay111]

Use dry mouth as a constant in a mathematical equation. So your bad breath maybe lets say 35.

dry mouth is like a multiplier, lets say its value is 3. this makes your breath 3 times worse than it is. So now your breath is 35x3=105. Say you had dry mouth and ur breath was good like erm the value 5, 5x3 = 15 now you have bb.

I dont know thats the way I see how dry mouth works. During ramadan, no matter how good your breath is pretty much 90% of the people have bb. ( This is when muslims fast.)

[EndInSight]

Here's my opinion...

First off, 100% your breath can be affected negatively by stress.

I was told by my mom a year ago that I had BB.
The only other time I remember being told I had bad breath was when I was a soph in high school. I just chewed gum and brushed whenever and didn't have a problem. I am now 21.
When my mom told me I had BB I was practicing not the best oral hygiene regimen and just being lazy.
I went to dentist ... He found several cavities (needed two dentist visits). This was the source of my BB.
After the first visit I had my mom smell my breath and she said it was better though she could still smell something there. After the 2nd visit she said it was gone...

Until I went back to school I would ask her numerous time to smell my breath ... Everything was fine.

When I went back to school I had my friends was embarrassed to ever ask them.

Basically I began to associate (through my own doing) every little thing (a nose rub or cough even if I wasn't talking) as my BB. I wondered my friends hadn't said a thing the first two years of college... Initially when my mom smelt my BB I asked her to smell through my nose and she said she could also smell it from my nose. So I 100% developed halitaphobia.

Also, through posts like "your family would lie to you so you don't hurt yourself" and "your family gets used to how you smell so they can't smell your BB" really fucked me up mentally. Really bad. I didn't know what to do. So I 100% disagree with not asking friends and family. 100%.

Throughout the next 8 months I finally started to ask people...
My dad (after 4 months), sister around same time I asked my dad (who was away at school and I hadn't seen for about a year). I still wasn't convinced based on
(1.) I feel like my mouth is always dirty
(2.) People rub there noses sometimes
(3.) People cough sometimes
(4.) Most importantly, was these phantom terrible smells I would get when I would talk to people and sometimes just when I was by myself.
I had my wisdom teeth out 2 months ago and these smells (that no one else could smell...) have gone down signinificantly.

I went to a periodontist and he said I did have mild periodontitis but nothing that would contribute to chronic halitosis (In the next month I am having two scaling and root planning procedures done to knock out that bacteria once and for all.

Anyways, Around 8-9 months into my COMPLETE paranoia/phobia I asked two of my best friends. I said straight up do I have chronic bad breath when I am around you? I asked them seprately. Both said no and I told them how it had been really messing with my mind. They realized I'd been acting weird and they were sincere in trying to convince me that I didn't have BB.

I also asked 2 other of my friends (who I knew would have no knowledge of me asking my two good friends about it). They both said no.

I've been to around 5 or 6 Drs. All said no. I sat in front of my periodontist for 45 min talking and he promised me I did not have a problem. I quote him, "IT IS MY JOB TO TELL PEOPLE THEY HAVE BAD BREATH DUE TO THEIR PERIODONTAL DISEASE ... I'M LOOKING YOU IN THE FACE AND TELLING YOU THAT YOU DON'T HAVE BAD HALITOSIS."

I'm coming to the realization that I need to relax because my BB may not exist at all.
As the past year has developed I have firmly believed that if I was in a room and a person coughed over 90 ft away that it was because of my BB coming through my nose. That cleary idiotic.

I still have panic attacks and feel immense stress when I'm around people I don't know ... I am consciously working my mind and body to just ****ing relax... It's been helping.

I went to the GI doctor... Of course I asked him about my BB. And when I was talking to him I smelt the phantom smell of shit that I sometimes get. I kind of flipped out and was like are you kidding me you don't smell that. He looked at me pretty weird and again assured me no...
Anyways I had a upper endoscpy done and I had bile in my stomach due to Bile Reflux Disease on account of an ulcer... When I came too in the recovery room my GI DR came over and told me about the bile in my stomach. I asked him how something like that happend ... He said stress. I have another appt with him on the 13th. I've been taking sucralfate and that has taken the bad taste and most of the remaining white residue off the back of my tongue... It's not an antibiotic so I know that my stomach at least has part to do with it.

My thing now is did my stressing out for a year any time I got close to someone bring about this ucler/constipation/other stomach issues or was this the main reason for my BB. Regardless I've seen some improvement and I've only been on the medication for about 6 days.

I have CT scan of sinus results I'm waiting on.
Another appt. with my GI as a check up and he is going to give me my biopsy results (he thought h pylori was present)
And the two root scaling/planning procedures in early NOV.

I've already ruled out NUMEROUS other causes that factor into BB. So, I'm going to finish off the course I am on and then I will be over this.

Anyways, the most important adivce I can give is this following this past year ... TELL YOU PARENTS/CLOSE FRIENDS ABOUT YOUR ISSUE. EXPRESS TO THEM THAT IT IS HONESTLY TAKING A TOLL ON YOU PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, AND EVERY OTHER POSSIBLE WAY. TELL THEM TO VERIFY WHETHER OR NOT THE PROBLEM YOU BLIEVE IS THERE IS ACTUALLY THERE AND TRUST WHAT THEY SAY. THEN, IF THERE IS A PROBLEM ATTACK IT. IF THERE IS NO PROBLEM THEN MOVE THE ***k ON.

Moving on for me after a year of this constant fear is hard but I'm in the early stages and I'm working on it.

I'm keeping my updates as stuff happens on my original post.

[halitosisux]

Can we be certain that bad breath from fasting is due to dehydration?

When you dont eat, the dead cells that are constantly growing on the end of your tongue papillae which normally get trimmed off by the abrasion of chewing food, start to rapidly build up and form a thick coating which then creates a very thick anaerobic 'carpet' resulting in a buildup of VSCs and BB.

Its the same during sleep.

Its probably a combination of less saliva/flow, and the lack of abrasion/flushing action.

[halitosisux]

Good luck EndInSight. Please remember to come back and keep us updated on your progress.