Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

I´m 19 years old and I´m from Holland. I´ll try to share my story with in my best english. Forgive me for any mistakes and feel free to correct me where necessary.

It all started in high school, my friend who was sitting next would often ask me stuff like ´´man how much garlic did you eat yesterday?´´ And I would just laugh it off and say yea I ate a lot of it, when in fact I hadn´t eaten garlic or anything like that for weeks.. At this point I wasn´t too concerned about it, it was in the back of my head and I always carried a pack of chewing gum with thinking that would mask any weird odor.

After highschool I did something called BBL over here, which is 4 days of work and 1 day of school. The 4 days of work were in the kitchen of a restaurant, no dealing with customers, no long conversations with anyone.
People thought I was just shy, a girl once even asked me why I was so arrogant, because I would never actually have a conversation with anyone at work. I could have lived with this for a couple years, but I got another job.

This is where it all changed, I started working at an electronics store. The first ever customer I talked to said in the middle of the conversation ´´thanks, I have to go´´ and just left rubbing his nose and avoiding eye-contact. From that moment on it became more and more obvious how everyone I knew was trying to avoid getting near my face and talking directly to me. It´s been around 6 months now since I got this new job and I don´t know how long I´ll be able to put up with the humiliation. Every hour of the day I get disgusted and annoyed looks from people, I stay inside the house as much as possible, my social life is gone.. I lost almost 10kg in about 6 months because I´m so stressed during the day that I´m not even hungry. I´m really lost, friends ask me to come to parties and do stuff but everytime I´ll have to make up an excuse because I´m too afraid to go out.

Now here´s the interesting part. I am not 100% sure that my breath smells. Everyone I have asked says that they don´t smell anything. Including the doctor, went to see the doctor 2 times and 2 times he has asked me ´´have you checked with anyone in your environment´´ and I´ll have to say that everyone says they don´t smell anything. The last time he didn´t even check anything, he offered right away to send me to a psychologist and he said that it´s all in my head.

I went to see a dentist and he said my teeth and gums were fine. I was afraid to mention my breath to a person I had never seen before. But he didn´t say anything about bad breath, do you think a dentist would mention it if he smelled a bad breath?

Every morning there´s some white stuff on my tongue, when I go to bed I brush my teeth, scrape my tongue, clean my nose with a fluid and brush my tongue with a salt/water mixture. I notice when I do this in the morning that my tongue remains pink for the day, but every morning when I wake up my tongue is white.
Also it feels like there´s always some slime in the back of my throath or where the nasal cavity meets the throath. Also when I clear my nose with a fluid my right nostril is much harder than my left and most of the fluid just goes out the other nostril.

I´m looking for some advice on what kind of doctor to go see, my own doctor won´t take me seriously anymore and just wants to send me to a psychologist. What´s your advice?

I´m sorry if the story is a little long but it feels to great to actually talk to ´´someone´´ about it


I´m looking forward to your replies

regards,
Menno

I'm also from holland. If I read your story and your experiences, I'm pretty much convinced you do have a CH problem. Other people also never look me into the eye. Plus other people have confirmed that I have CH in the past and told me not to get too close to others when I speak. But nvm, I get reminded of the fact that I have bb pretty much every day. If I stand somewhere in a crowded area, I would open my mouth just slightly, everyone behind me, next to me, and in front of me, would turn their head away or grab/rub their nose.

there´s some more

I do actually have a girlfriend and she claims that she doesn´t smell anything. When I´m close to her I´m always trying to talk away from her and she´ll always tell me to talk to her face. She swore to god that she doesn´t smell anything. Could it be that the people you are close to
don´t smell anything? First I thought she was just being polite or didn´t want to hurt my feelings but I get absolutely no reaction from her? No nose rubbing no weird looks nothing. Sometimes whe she´s in the kitchen or something I´ll go stand next to her and start talking right to her face and she just answers my question without rubbing her nose or looking at my mouth. Also in bed we lay face to face and we have conversations and she really doesn´t smell anything

But during the day it´s so obvious that something is wrong

But during the day it´s so obvious that something is wrong

I would guess that you have bad breath, but are fortunate enough to have a very caring girlfriend. I am in a similar situation where all day at work (also an electronics store) I get reactions from almost all people I get close to. I had a girlfriend for about a month who claimed I was crazy and didn't smell anything, same with my current friends. But I do not think there is a coincidence to fans getting turned on and incense being lit when I come to their apartment. People that are friends but not close enough friends to know about my problem will come by to hang out and give me these strange long stares, and put their hands near their noses. I believe my close friends see this and know its driving me insane.

Despite how painful this problem is, there is still hope. Try and be as confident and happy as you can be around your girlfriend, she will appreciate that.

I'm convinced my girlfriend doesn't smell anything, last night she stayed over and we talked face to face the entire time. I get absolutely no reaction from her, nothing. I'm so confused right now. During the day at work it's sooo obvious that something is wrong, yet my girlfriend or my mother don't smell anything. How is this possible? I'm definetely not halitophobic, if you think I am how do you explain these reactions:

- People saying ''ok, thank you'' in the middle of the conversation and walking away
- The ''weird look'' (that you all know so well) when you start talking to people.
- People taking a step back and that weird look again when you start to talk

I constantly get reactions during the day but as soon as I get home I ask my mom and she says she doesn't smell anything? My mom wouldn't lie to me, she's always 100% honest about everything, even things that might be uncomfortable to talk about. Same goes for my girlfriend.

But when I talk to strangers they all seem to smell it. I know that the odds are against me, that it looks like I'm halitophobic but I'm sure that I'm smart enough to tell if I'm making it up or not. How could I make it up, I would have to be hallucinating that people are looking at me weird and take a step back.

regards,
Menno

p.s. Eric I heard you're dutch also, do you have msn? Would be cool to talk to some more people with the same problem.

Your symptoms seem very similar to mine. I'm still looking for a cause and cure, but hopefully some of this timetable and stuff I have tried will help you. This is a long, but I'm hoping some detail will ring a bell.

I'm 24. To the best of my knowledge, I've had bb for around 4 months, but I have had the feeling of mucous in the back of my throat and having only 1 nostril clear at a time for as long as I can remember.

I first noticed bb a few days after I had a crown put on by my dentist. I can't remember if it was right after or a few days later. It seems to be coming from a particular wisdom tooth (not the tooth with the crown put on but it is the same side), because when I touch my gums, my finger only smells when I rub around the wisdom tooth.

A week later my dentist confirms I have bad breath and stays as far as possible from my mouth and constanty asks for suction when putting on my permanent crown. He tells me it's my wisdom tooth and I should get it out. In the meantime he gives me a syringe type thing to help clean out the gum, tetracycline mouthwash to kills the bacteria, and tells me to use hydogen peroxide.

Two months ago, I had the two wisdom teeth taken out on the "problem" side of my mouth. The extraction goes fine, with the exception that I can only keep my mouth open for a minute at at time, before I feel the need to swallow the slime in the back of my throat.

One day, one week, and then one month later, I still have persistent bb. The gum doesn't smell to the touch. I go to my dentist and he tells me to keep the socket very clean and use listerine and it will go away (my dentist must think I have the IQ of a mountain goat).

I schedule an appointment with an ENT (this is a little over a month ago), since I begin to think that the feeling of mucous in my throat is linked to my bb. The ENT gives me an exam and says everything looks normal. He did say I have a deviated septum, which is why I have difficulty breathing through my nose. He said I could get it fixed, and it may help the breathing but probably isn't the cause of any problems I am facing. He gave the following advice:
-chew sugarless gum
-try prilosec for acid-reflux
-go to a dentist

He also referred me to get a CT scan and Upper GI (barium swallow).
I had the CT scan and barium swallow done a few weeks ago, and both came back with nothing. My ENT still hasn't personally seen the tests so maybe something will come up but it's doubtful.

Here are some other things I have recently tried:
-using saline to clean the nostrils. I always seem to get clear mucous to come out, but it hasn't helped and the mucous doens't seem to smell. The saline always comes out the other nostril. I've also tried some sinus clearing drugs
-prilosec for acid reflux (I stopped after a week)
-antibiotics
-stop drinking coffee, limit alcohol, drink a lot of water, and eat more fruits and vegetables. I think this has helped a little but this stuff probably improves the breath of anyone.
-I'm still brushing the white coating off my tongue that appears every morning, gargling salt water, brushing and flossing regularly

Here are some things I plan to try in the future:
-Fix deviated septum
-Allergy test
-Get other two wisdom teeth out
-Tonsils out?
-Digestion tests
-Have a dentist look at my crown
-Play a lot of soccer

yea your symptoms do sound alot like mine. When I rub my gums I don't smell anything but when I floss between my (I think) wisdom teeth the floss has a fecal smell. I'm not sure they are my wisdom teeth, I'll have to look up where a humans wisdom teeth are

But I've asked other people without bb if their floss smelled afterwards and most said yes, so I'm thinkinh that's pretty normal.

I want to see an ENT, but my doctor won't take me seriously anymore. He'll just send me to a psychiatrist again.
Can I go to my doctor and I just tell him that I want to see an ENT? Do I need his permission?