Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

Firstly let me congratulate the moderators and members for such a great,informative and helpful board and place of reference,i have been looking for a site just like this for a long time,and i can now share my experiences,what i have noticed on here is the togetherness,i no longer feel alone and feel here i have a great platform to express things that i would find difficult to say.

OK Right,onwards then...

I am 28 years old a live in the south of the U.K,i am avarage height and have a decent build for my size,i exercise regularly and run around 10 -15 miles per week,I recently had a clean bill of health from both my GP and Dentist,and have no long standing ilnesses other than Asthma.

I Have had BB for as long as i can remember,and can recall more than 50 times i have overheard someone,or someone has told me i have BB.

I have tried Everything.I Have tried,Probiotics,K12,Fresh breath,Thera Breath,Numerous erbal remedies,herbal supplements,vitamins,I have spent over £800 on a clinic in london that claims to cure BB,which i hasten to add,doesnt cure it.

I Have had problems with my nose in the past,deviated septum and nasal polyps,i have this corrected and the polyps removed 5 years ago,and still no different,so i went back to my GP and told him of my embarrassing problem.he immediately put it down to Nasal problems and referred me to my local hospital to see my ENT consultant,who checked me over and found me to have no recurring problems there,so i returned to my GP again after plucking up the courage a second time.

He was extremely dismissive and said i had a common condition called Halitophibia,let me correct that right now,i have Halitosis,NOT Halitophobia.

I split up with my previous GF of 5 years down to BB,she said i had it quite often,but would not let that get it the way of our relationship,however,its is all i ever think about,it is depressing me so much i want to cry sometimes,and in a way i guess i pushed her away.

I Have met a new girl recently whom i have known for many years,and started seeing each other 2 years ago and thank god she understands my problem and is extremely supportive,i wont make the same mistake twice.

Family and friends arent aware of my sheer embarrassment and low self worth and esteem,as i hide it quite well,but i get that sinking,sweaty feeling when someone just mentions BB near me,you just know it is directed at you.

Colleagues cover there mouths,cough,leave mints on my desk etc,my little cousin recently said to me,does your breath smell like that because you dont brush your teeth?i was mortified,but i appreciated the honesty!

The smells range from mild to putrid,sometimes Garlicy,sometimes fecal,i have a good diet so i have dismissed the poor diet thing,i also looked into the candida and leaky gut syndrome avenues and did an extremely difficult yeast free diet which i consider made me worse,my tongue always smells.

I sometimes have good days,and i cherish them,i rarely go out anymore i cant bear peoples reactions in social spots.

I am considering tonsillectomy but i fear i may have trouble getting refererred.

I also notice my stomach feels empty alot even when i have had a good meal,i not actually empty its just a weird feeling inside me,that co-incides with my BB alot of the time.

I am at my wits end almost,it is so great to read peoples cured testimonies on here,it has given me alot of heart to carry on with this fight,anything else anyone can suggest would be helpful,but i dont have lumps in my tonsils at all or no pain,so is a Tonsilectomy really worth it?

Anyways,thanks alot for reading my story,i will update with progress reports every do often!

J X

Hi & Welcome

I used to live in London, shame I don't anymore, as it would be good to compare symptoms etc. I probably went to the same clinic as you. I thought they were okay, but sadly they can only help mild cases with oral causes...

I would not recommend tonsillectomy unless the stench is clearly coming from there. I had one done when I was 19, with little or no difference.

Do you have any digestive issues? I didn't think I did, but have realised that when I sleep on my back or on my left side I quite often wake up feeling very nauseous, like I could be sick any second. If I sit up, it disappears pronto.

All these clinics claim the posterior part of the tongue stinks beause of the oral bacteria collected there. But what if that's a simplified view? Maybe the tongue (far back) stinks simply because foul air passes over it constantly.

I also notice my stomach feels empty alot even when i have had a good meal,i not actually empty its just a weird feeling inside me,that co-incides with my BB alot of the time.

My stomach feels empty too
I´ve had last meal 30 min ago but it still feels empty. I drink a lot too so i don´t know.
I´ve noticed that when i eat very late at night, the next morning my stomach feels totally empty. I wanna do colon cleansing, i´ve allready found a place where they do it it´s not far from where i live.
Just don´t have the guts to do it.

Kids are brutally honest sometimes.

The other day I was playing with my friend's 9 year old son, he farted. So I jokingly said, "Yewwwww!' He asnwered me, "you've been farting on me all day. You fart on me, so I'll fart on you!"

The thing was... I never farted. I guess I just smell like fart all day....

Hi Mr Anon

Do you have any allergies? I know you said you have asthma which can actually cause a person to have bb at times. If you have post nasal drip at the back of your nose into your throat this can also cause bb. I think this is one of my biggest problems at the moment.

iwillbecured wrote: The thing was... I never farted. I guess I just smell like fart all day....

I find it painful to read this. I've had similar experiences and it's the worst thing Ever.

Have your boyfriend never mentioned your stench? It's horrible to think that maybe people around us think we're letting go of gas all the time, when we're not

billie wrote:I´ve noticed that when i eat very late at night, the next morning my stomach feels totally empty.

Is that not 'normal'?? If not, someone please point this out as this has always been my experience..

baguio wrote:

billie wrote:I´ve noticed that when i eat very late at night, the next morning my stomach feels totally empty.

Is that not 'normal'?? If not, someone please point this out as this has always been my experience..

its NORMAL!
why it isnt recomended to eat big meals before going to sleep? U eat ure stomach streaches, and u wake up with streached stomach, and u have bigger volume to fill! eat again before sleep time, u streach stomach again.....every time ure stomach is "larger" needs more food to fill it up...

I'm sorry for all you're going through-for what all of us are going through. I just had a thought on the empty stomach feeling. I used to have that hungry like feeling or gnawing all the time. I finally went and got medicine for acid reflux-apparently reflux can cause that feeling sometimes. I took Nexium and now Protonix which is the same thing. It helped with that feeling. It hasn't however helped my bb problem, although it may be something for you to check into. I'm just wondering for how long of a period did you take the probiotics? I tried them only for about a month or two. Maybe not long enough. Just curious. Keep us posted.

That's funny, because when I eat, I sometimes have the feeling that the food isn't digesting properly. Like it has a hard time staying in the stomach. So after I eat, it's like the undigested food is what people smell. My BB always increased 40% after eating.

Regarding eating late... why do it? It seems obvious that it can only make BB worse. Bodily functions relax during sleep, so do you want all that half digested food just sitting there where all the bacteria and their brothers can feast? Not only do I try to eat 3 hours before bed, I also try to stay upright (not lay down) and I also force bowel movement before bedtime. I also rinse my throat as well as possible before bed, to reduce any mucous that sits in the throat area overnight. I can easily tell the difference when I follow the above procedure, and when I don't.

Hi guys,thanks for all the replies,good to know we are all in the same boat trying each other out!

I Went to the Dr.Stemmer clinic in harley street London,and found it to be a waste of time and money,i would avoid it if you were thinking of trying it,it is just a glorified dental hygienist who solely thinks BB comes from the mouth.

I think my BB eminates from my gut.stomach to be honest,i have researched this enough and probably know more on the subject than a doctor does about it!

I sometimes get bloating with certain foods,but i wouldnt say i have had digestive issues no,i also tend to snore when i sleep on my back leading to try mouth,so i tried a snore guard to see if my mouth felt any fresher,and to if produced anymore saliva than usual,that didnt seem to help either.

What pisses me of the most about people perception of BB is the i dont look after and clean my teth and floss regularly,i can tell you now,as you probably can all testify to,my oral hygiene is exemplary,i've never had a filing or even a toothache,i see people with awful dental work who's breath doesnt smell,and think to myself?how the ***k can he/she smell normal when i work so damn hard to keep my teeth in shape and still have a problem? i know cleaning your teeth and using mouthwash doesnt actually help that much so they say,but it makes me feel a little better in myself so i'll keep on doing that.

Thanks for the posts on the stomach issues,i can relate a little to them,i have taking acidophilus and digestive enzymes along with physillium husks for a while now,and it still hasnt worked much for me,interesting on the stomach acids also,i feel this could be a plausable ezplaination for my BB.

In answer to a few questions,i get post nasal drip sometimes,but as my nose has been playing me up since childhood,all docs seem to attribute that as the cause,whereas i 'm pretty sure my nasal passages are fine,i also agree with you larc,the reason a tongue smells bad is because it has bad air going over it all day!

Speak soon guys,you seem a great crowd!

daisyk wrote:I'm sorry for all you're going through-for what all of us are going through. I just had a thought on the empty stomach feeling. I used to have that hungry like feeling or gnawing all the time. I finally went and got medicine for acid reflux-apparently reflux can cause that feeling sometimes. I took Nexium and now Protonix which is the same thing. It helped with that feeling. It hasn't however helped my bb problem, although it may be something for you to check into. I'm just wondering for how long of a period did you take the probiotics? I tried them only for about a month or two. Maybe not long enough. Just curious. Keep us posted.

Hi i tried them for around 6 months and didnt really feel much differencce to be honest,i will definately look into the reflux thing thanks alot.

elliott wrote:Not only do I try to eat 3 hours before bed, I also try to stay upright (not lay down) and I also force bowel movement before bedtime. I also rinse my throat as well as possible before bed, to reduce any mucous that sits in the throat area overnight. I can easily tell the difference when I follow the above procedure, and when I don't.

Hi Elliot,

have you been able to discern which of these things have the biggest effect on your (morning) bb?

I'm always amazed that some people with bb are able to have long term relationships. i don't know how they do it.

Archimonde wrote:I'm always amazed that some people with bb are able to have long term relationships. i don't know how they do it.

Hi Archi,
I Have an amazing girlfriend who is very supportive of me and says she loves me for who i am not what i smell like,she is gorgeous too!

It was so hard to breach the subject with her,but implore her to tell me if offends her,and i think most of the time she tells me when i have particularly bad BB,I try to avoid social gatherings with her as i dont want to embarass her.

She doesnt seem to think its as bigger deal as i make it out to be,i guess,in a way i am lucky in that respect.

Im really going to push the low stomach acid angle and see what things i buy which may help,hell,its worth a shot!