Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

How many of you have gone to another dentist for a second or third opinion?
My dentists says I don't have any problems with teeth, gums and showed me my x-rays, as if I can read them and also said my gums are not bleeding. Well I know this person who has bb due to bad hygene and his gums don't bleed and I do notice that when this person brushes teeth his bb is cut more than half. By the way I have not gone to a different dentists for a second opinion.

Hi Halihope,
I have a few things to say to this. Firstly my own experience - I'd visited many different dentists to find out if anything dentally could be causing BB. Not one of them over many years ever mentioned a particular wisdom tooth of mine which had created an anaerobic pocket in the tissues at the back of my mouth - I found out by chance for myself a few years ago that gunk which smelled similar to tonsilloliths was constantly pouring out from this pocket. I've recently had that tooth out and i have no more foul breath (and im still waiting for the gum to completely heal, its painstakingly slow).

Also, my sister who i've never detected BB from has developed a horrible mothball smelling breath lately. I know that every time she sees her dentist he is messing around with a certain tooth of hers which keeps needing repairs. She is blissfully unaware of her BB still, i will need to drop some hints soon, but in the meantime there is no way her dentist cant smell this odour, yet he leaves that tooth in.

Also, no doubt you will have read cured's story on his wisdom teeth too, which turned out to be his BB cause. His dentist insisted that it was highly unlikely they were causing any issues.

My advice to anyone with BB who hasnt done so already, is to get other opinions from other dentists. Unless a dentist is experienced enough they are unlikely to know what problems may or may not cause BB, no matter what their training may have taught them.

My mother also had BB for as long as i can remember. She had all of her teeth extracted a few years ago, and has never had a hint of BB since.

I could go on and on here. People please do not underestimate the potential for teeth and gums to cause BB.

Thanks for this post. I have a dentist visit coming up in a week I'll ask her about this. I have noticed that when I floss, the last tooth on the upper left side is where I really smell something truly awful. I have taken my fingers and rubbed other areas of my mouth (teeth, gums and tongue) and it's only in that back corner of my mouth and my throat where the smell is horrible. No other part of my mouth smells that way.

Flossing in between my upper back teeth produces that tonsilloth smell too, but it's only after eating red meat, and I think alcohol. I've always felt that it is nothing more than bacteria getting stuck in between those particular teeth, because they are closer together, and receive less oxygen airflow. That is also the area where I focus my chewing, so those teeth are more susceptible.

I don't have this problem when my diet is clean, I have verified that plenty of times with myself.

If your teeth are causing your BB, I wonder if you have all the other symptoms. If you have the throat fudge, the smelly nose, the heavy bloated stomach, and the nasty taste, etc. I think you should look beyond the mouth for a cure. If you have no symptoms other than a smell from the teeth, yeah I would get 2nd and 3rd opinion from dentists.

Hi elliott,

I agree with what you say. I dont believe either that flossing odours from any particular tooth means there is a problem there, although if there was a problem it certainly would smell. My flossing would produce odours randomly, depending, as you said, whether certain types of food became stuck in a particular place or where any kind of debris and stagnation could occur. Even people who dont have BB will find odours when they floss occasionally.
I think for anyone who has BB and has odours in the mouth/tongue this will exacerbate any odour buildup between the teeth, since VSCs are likely to become absorbed by any debris there.
In my case, i had a gum pocket which was allowing anaerobic bacteria to constantly produce foul gunk, even if i'd syringe it out with neat bleach and not eat anything, the bacteria would soon find their way back in and begin putrifying. There wasnt even any disease going on, so just imagine what a diseased gum pocket would do.
My point is that teeth and gums must be 100% ruled out before anything else. Any such problems are guaranteed to cause a degree of BB because of the foul chemicals released into the rest of the mouth, in the same way that sinus problems and any other areas of bacterial putrification will do.

My right upper wisdom tooth is a bit curved towards the inside of my mouth, I have to make sure to spend more time brushing there because it always have a nasty film, and the right and left bottom of mouth each have a molar that when I floss it smells horrible yet my dentists says that those are not pockets and my wisdom tooth is not too curvy and therefore no problem. IF POCKETS ARE THE PROBLEM HOW ARE THEY REPAIRED?? I have no body or nose smell, a bit of pnd, one nostril only and do not suffer from digestive or bloated stomach or acid reflux.

By the way, yesterday I rinsed with apple vinegar (not diluted) and then brushed teeth and to my surprise my whole tongue was coated white! the white I get is always in the very back and sort of thick and the rest of tongue is pink but this time it really threw me off, I will continue rinsing with apple vinegar but I will diluted so that it doesn't make my teeth sensitive and see what happens tomorrow since I have a docts appt.

Hi Halihope,
Do any of these teeth look as though they aren't fully erupted? is your jaw overcrowded that any of your furthest teeth are so far back that they push into the tissues at the rear of your mouth? If any teeth dont fully erupt then the gum can create a pocket around the crown of the tooth where gum cant adhere, as happened with mine.
If your dentist says you dont have pockets then you have no choice but to accept that, but you could seek another dentist's opinion on this. If you find that certain teeth always produce odours when you floss then this might indicate that you have a certain amount of "disformity" there which is allowing things to stagnate and smell. If your teeth are overcrowded, talk about the possibility of having certain wisdom teeth extracted with your dentist to gauge their opinion on potential problems this could cause due to the difficulty reaching them.
Please understand that there is a difference between pockets caused by tartar buildup/gum disease and pockets caused by deformity. But remember that both types can cause BB.