Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

It was very hard to ask someone if i had bb but my day started of very bad. At work when i talked to the peple they were touching their nose , and 2 even coughed....I become pissed and in bad mood and people kept asking me whats wrong and if i am feeling ok. One of the cooler people asked and i told him i had some personal issues. He asked if i wanted to talk to him about it and i explained few other issues that i am going through now and last thing i told him that i went to doc and he said i had a very bad sinus infection. I explained that the doctor told me that this could cause me to have bad breath and bad smell from the nose and that this made me very self concious... I was very suprised when he said let me know if i can help you with anything but if it makes you feel any better "I HAVENT SMELLED ANYTHING YET" I was very suprised especially since this was the same person that caughed and had one finger under his nose lot of time when i talked to him. We talked for about 30-45 mins and at one point after i asked him he had one of the fingers under his nose so i thought he might be lying to me.

After work i was determined to get a second opinion!!! I thought for good 1 hr who to ask and determined i would ask one of my best friends. I told him the story that was not completely true but i figured it would be the sure way to get the true answer from him. I told him that i went the doctor and that the doctor explained to me that i had bad sinus infection which is true. Next i told him that the doctor asked me if i experienced bb and bad smell coming from nose and that i told the doc that i didnt know. I also told him that the doc told me to ask a close relative or friend and that i decided to ask him since he was going to tell me the truth. I also told him that it was important for him to tell me the truth because the doctor needed to know so that he can prescribe the right medication to help me clear the infection. He said that he never smelled bb from me.... he became furious saying that the doc was giving me bs and trying to have me come back and drain me for money. I asked him if he smelled how some other people bb smelled and he said yes some people have bb. He said but i have never smelled it from you and we spend a lot of time in the car driving around and talking and that if i had bad smell coming from nose and/or bb he would deff smell it and let me know. This is a very good friend , he has told me some very personal stories and i have done the same... stories that we havent even told our parents.

Now i am completely confused... i get all the reactions you gusy get.. touching of the nose, Finger under nose when near me, coughing, feeling like people are talking behind my back, turning of heads when i am talking... etc

I am totally confused, either they are used to my smell or are not telling me the truth

OR

I am freaking going crazy thinking people think that my bb stink...

Could it be possible that we are all experiencing some psychological issue where we over analyze peoples moves and turn them into us believing we have bb or smell bad. I dont know i am considering asking some more people.... Any of you ask people and they confirmed that you had horrible breath???

bbsux
I also had the courage to ask family members and friends about my bb and also told them my ent doctor asked me to ask so that he could prescribed the right medication and guess what? They all said the same thing "I don't smell any bb" Yet they kept and keep putting finger under nose when they are close to me and I am talking. Some of my siblings even put finger under nose as soon as I sit across from them and while I get ready to eat, while my mouth is close, they keep finger there as to warn me that my breath smells, one of them even gets close to me and asks a question then as soon as I open my mouth the finger goes under nose and then this person gets away from me. Well since I am in my house I don't care what they do I just keep talking and acting as normal as possible, I decided a long time ago that if they don't like it then don't visit and since they lied to me this is what they get! By the way my hubby and children don't smell my bb. I am sorry to burst your bubble but if you are getting the finger under nose, stares, specially long stares, backing away, purse mouths, getting cut off when talking then you do have bb and those people who you asked they just lied to you Or perhaps your best friend is telling you the truth and he doesn't smell your bb .

bbsux, it take a lot of courage to ask someone. I did that with 3 of my close friends and only one ever admitted smelling my bb. And since then they have really been very consious when around me i.e 2 of them try not to put their fingers under their nose and sometimes they just keep a safe distance or fan themselves when I open my mouth to talk. However the one that actually told me the truth had been really helpful, she tells me how bad my breath is after eating certain foods. This way i have been able to determine the kinds of food that increases my bb. I just hope you find someone you can trust to help ypu get thru' this situation.

@bbsux, I've said this before and i'll say it again:

nose touching and coughing aren't necessarly the results of a bad odor, they are merely allergic reactions. There's a forum called "people are allergic to me" on medhelp, most people there - maybe 95% of them - don't have bb or b.o, yet they make other people cough. "PATM" is a different condition than BB. Judging from your post, it's possible your breath is fine and you're on the wrong forum, read the archive of messages there http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Allergy/m ... tml?page=1
see if the stories on that site are consistent with what you're going thru. I personally have both BB and PATM, it took me years to differienciate the 2, it can be confusing.

obvious BB reactions: being told that you stink or that something stinks (did anyone fart? or similar comments), people backing away from you when you speak, being offered gums & mint, ppl putting their hand (or even an object) in front of their face to block your breath.

PATM reactions: exactly like an allergic reaction: dry coughing, throat clearing, nose rubbing/touching (they do that because it's itching, not because it stinks).

I think some people on this forum have both conditions and confuse the 2 (and the reactions), or they only have 1. If you're stinky, it's impossible to go thru your entire life without ever being told. If you've never been told that you have BB, then you don't have it and there's another explanation for the nose touching.

For your own sanity, you all need to understand that if someone 10 meters away from you starts coughing uncontrollably or touching their nose, it's not because they smelled you, it's because they're having an allergic reaction to an allergen coming from you, that allergen isn't a bad odor, it's something else (no one seems to know what it is).

Hi Archimonde,

I only became aware of PATM since reading about it on here recently.
I apologise in advance to anyone i might upset with what im about to say, i'm asking purely to gauge opinions on the subject.

Firstly - even the worst cases of halitosis i've ever encountered have never been enough to fill a room. I've known people's general odours to do this but not generally due to the foulness or the potency any odours they eminate.

Secondly - people cough, splutter, itch and sneeze all the time. When people say that it happens as soon as they walk into a room, how can they know what was happening in there until they arrived?
I'm very sensitive to nasal allergy and no one's presense has ever affected me before, not unless they start jumping around and throwing dust everywhere.

halitosisux wrote: Secondly - people cough, splutter, itch and sneeze all the time. When people say that it happens as soon as they walk into a room, how can they know what was happening in there until they arrived?

If it happens once or twice a day, you can't know. If it happens several times a day, EVERYWHERE YOU GO, then you know you're the allergen, trust me.

I know that some people are allergic to lots of things and that we're obviously not responsible for every allergic reactions but it's not normal that ~50% of the people around you itch, cough. A normal % would be like 10%. People with PATM, it can be up to 50%, if not more, according to what ppl have said on that forum. That's just not normal and we're not crazy.

Hell, even a few people on the forum have been *directly* told by coworkers that they didn't wanna sit next to him/her because they get allergic reactions. There was no complain of an odor problem, just allergy reactions - that confirms PATM uniquivocally. I suspect that maybe 5-10% of the ppl who read this forum don't have BB and only have PATM, and some have both, some have only BB. I know i didn't get PATM til about 5 years ago but had BB for 20 years. There's probably a link between the 2.

Thanks for that reply there archimonde,
Its unquestionably happening for some then. Could be something indirectly happening like the pets people own contaminating clothes or something of that nature. But since it appears to be related to those with BB, could it just be that even those without BB have this phenomenon occuring too, and that its just a coincidence that those with BB feel more paranoid because of the BB so they are more likely to notice such reactions from others? It would be interesting to know what you think because it may give lots of clues if it really is related to BB or whatever the cause is of BB in some people.