Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

Hi everyone,

I've put a few posts on before now, but I wanted to post the complete history of my problem. Hopefully some of you guys may be able to relate with some of my issues and have some advice.

I first noticed i had bad breath about 8 or 9 years ago now. I would have been 13 when my blissfull ignorance evaporated. I think it was actually my Dad who shattered everything by exclaiming 'dog breath' during a conversation or something. Anyway it was all down hill from there, depression, tears, loneliness, anger etc. I stumbled along, vainly brushing my teeth and ignoring the rest of my mouth whilst eating MASSIVE AMOUNTS of sugar everyday.

I freely admit my oral hygiene was abysmal: I only cleaned my teeth and not the rest of my mouth you see. Anyway college came after high school; and I promised myself that I would just get on with life and chat to people normally, ignoring the reactions and everything. Well that didn't last too long; depression became the mainstay of my life. I had friends, but never felt a real connection with any of them.

Purely by chance, while I was still at college I discovered the surface of my tongue stank really badly. There was a big build up of whiteish stuff on the surface too. So I immediately felt an elation: 'This has to be it,' I thought. So I began brushing the tongue-and nothing. Not a damn thing. Well maybe a slight improvement. But still the odour.

So my life ground to a halt basically. I've completely cut myself off from people now because I can't stand the reactions, the humiliation. I can't even bring myself to call my best friend anymore. I'm sure all of you are acutely familiar with the pain of loneliness. I'm trying to convey how I've felt for the past nine years now but words seem so inadequate. It really is hard to communicate the feelings through a keyboard. I'll try and describe recent developments instead.

The past few months have been disastrous really. The smell has just got exponentially worse. Coming through my nose today was the smell of what can only be described as sewage. Horrible. But there can be other odours like farts or something. So yes there is a nasal odour. But my oral hygiene is so good. AND; my mouth feels the cleanest it ever has really. There's not the foul 'shit' taste that there so often was. I just don't get it. Bacteria are the cause I strongly suspect. But how to be sure. Today I was feeling desperate and decided to note down all the remedies and cures listed here on the site. What a mammoth task. Where to begin? From Small intenstinal bacterial overgrowth to citrus seed extract.

Now my tongue doesn't really stink when I touch it then smell my finger. I'm not surprised really cos I scrub the hell out of it with an anti-bacterial toothpaste (Colgate Total). Recently I noticed my left molar in the upper quarter of my mouth stank. So I thought that might be the answer. Problem with the tooth, you know. Well after vigorous brushing the smell disappeared so the probably isn't the answer. Maybe there are gum pockets I don't know. What do gum pockets actually look like? I know bacteria can accumulate there.

Oh yes, I used to get tonsil stones aswell. They stank to high heaven. Used to cough them up, but not anymore. Maybe the tonsil crypts are contributing? Maybe it's adenoids? I'm convinced it's something in my mouth that's causing my bb as all the evidence points to that (stinky tongue, tooth, tonsil stones, foul taste). My best guess is that my consumption of huge amounts of sugar in my early teens and lack of oral hygiene allowed bacteria to grow excessively in my mouth=bad beath. And I'm worried that it's gonna be with me forever.

Sorry nearly finished now! My only other complaint is a bowel problem. I suffer alot with constipation and or diaorrhea. Maybe this is a cause I don't know. Absorption of bowel crap into the blood?
So here's a summary:

-Bacteria on tongue (fewer now, but suspect still many there).
-Way worse after eating sugar
-Foul taste far back in throat and mouth
-Tonsil stones used to be present
-Used to have white tongue
-Floss stinks when rubbed between molars
-A wisdom tooth has not fully emerged (bacteria collecting?)
-Mouthwash doesn't work
-Used to consume massive amounts of sugar


So there we have it. My hell, but I now know that I'm not suffering alone. Sorry about the length everyone, but wante to give you the full picture. Thanks to all of you who replied to any of my previous posts; Halitosisux and everyone else. If any of you have any ideas about what could be going on in my mouth please let me know.

All the best.

Hey Michael,

well, I'm not sure what to say...I now realize that bb eventually can turn into nasal odor...I wish I was smart enough to prevent my own bb from going into such a stage...

Wow Michael, your problem sounds just like mine! For me, the smell from my nose seems to be a big problem. The only thing I do is to cleanse my nose with a sinus cleanse in a nasal pot.

I clean out my tonsil stones many times a day since some of the crypts are so big and food easily gets in there. My tongue is so 'hairy' and always need to scrub it over and over just to get the toothpaste off!

Just recently I noticed that when I floss between my two right molars, the floss is very stink. So I went to the dentist and lo and behold, my root canal was infected and the there are 'leakage' in the crown.

Tomorrow I get my infected root canal fixed, and soon after I will be getting my two crowns replaced. I really hope this would get rid of some bb.

I really want to know what I can do about the smell from my nose, though, since this seems to be the bigger problem now...

Hey Michael,
Is this partially erupted wisdom tooth anywhere near the molar you found to be smelling so bad? Please read about wisdom teeth very carefully, how they can affect other teeth and yet look so harmless.
As far as i knew, i never had nasal odours. But certain problems within the nose can themselves directly cause odours from there, but if BB can travel so far and stink whole rooms out, then its quite possible that odours of the right type and severity on the back of the tongue and throat could pass out of the nose from breathing.
Also, you seem to be implying that you no longer have tonsil stones? can u please explain how/what/when etc is happening there.
Have you seen a dentist specifically about your BB?
I cant imagine why a dentist wouldnt advise you to have your partially impacted wisdom tooth out, not for the BB, but for the future problems they can cause - there is an optimal time to have these unnecessary teeth out.

Hi Michael,

Let me first say that I am sorry that you have been going through all this.


I can relate to everything you say.

I too have nasal odour when I breathe out. So I can relate to what you say.

First advice I can give you is to look within yourself for help. and become proactive to find a cure. You must become your own doctor, dentist, and scientist because at the end of the day no one is going to do it for you.

I can tell from experience that everyone's cause is different. Your bb may be different from different people. Look within yourself for help. Dont rely on other people to tell you what could be causing your bb because they dont know everything.

What you can do is to get your gums checked for pockets or periodontal disease by a good dentist.

Also check out your wisdoms because if they are impacted then they will cause bad breath. What I mean by impacted is if the tooth isnt grown out fully out of the gum then it can cause bad breath.

Also, as you have read from the board some people have gotten complete cure from bad breath when they took out a wisdom tooth or all 4 wisdom teeth.

Now, I am not telling you to get out your wisdoms but best thing to do is have your wisdoms checked and gums checked by a dentist.


Oh. one more thing is the tonsil. I used to have tonsil stones.and I thought that was the cause of my bb. But it turns out that it isnt. I had a tonsillectomy and my bad breath is still here. I recently realised that my wisdoms might be the cause. so, have yours checked out by a dentist.

In a nutshell, many people on this board are realising that wisdom teeth and gums can cause bb and they are now leaning in that direction. Even some who said they had perfect teeth found out they didnt and that wisdoms or gums could cause bb in some way.



I hope you find success in your search for a cure. I know what life is and how difficult it is for everyone who has bb.

Look within yourself michael and be strong.

Drastic

Sorry about the delay everybody, been really busy this week. Thanks to you all for replying. To halitosisux, I can say that the wisdom tooth that has only partly come through is not near the stinky tooth.

But when that tooth did come through it caused a really bad stink. I don't seem to notice any smell coming from that tooth now.I need to get to the dentists now because the odour is getting worse (particularly the nasal odour). It's really mortifying now, as it's filling up rooms. Stopped cleaning my tongue with toothpaste this week, doing it doesn't help at all. The nasal odour got worse, but the mouth odour didn't worsen. Confused really.

Hardly get any morning breath at all now; some mornings there's ABSOLUTELY NONE AT ALL! This reduction in morning breath has come from brushing my gumline rather better than I used to.

I've noticed also that I can do my rigorous brushing routine in the morning after I eat my breakfast and my breath is quite good. But after my dinner and subsequent brushing it's not good then. The nasal odour gets much worse aswell. So maybe there's bits of food getting stuck somewhere and then being broken up by bacteria causing the smell.

Well thanks again for replying everyone. Just a final question. Any products that work at all for mouth and or nasal odours? All the best.

HI Michael,

Have you ever had an x-ray done of your sinuses for nasal odour?

or have you ever had x-rays done for your wisdom teeth?


Drastic

Hi Drastic,

I've never had any kind of X-Ray done of my sinuses or wisdom teeth. To be honest I've only ever told two people about my problem. They were my dentist and doctor about three years ago. Both occassions were really pointless, everyone was embarassed big time. My dentist was crap I now know; he never even looked at my tongue when I told him about the problem. He would have found that it was in need of a clean. Instead he just said that it could be my stomach. What a waste of time. The visit to the doctor was a waste of time aswell. I'd persuaded myself that there was a reflux problem with my stomach after listening to my dentist. I got medication for it from my doctor; obviously there was no change in the situation. I'm not even with a dentist now, but think that I should register with one again-just to see if anything has gone wrong with my teeth.

I tried one of those sinus rinsing pots to see if it improved the nasal odour. It didn't do anything really. I think the nasal odour comes from the mouth really. But not really sure of course. I haven't had the nasal odour forever though.

How long have you been suffering Drastic? What's your story? What do you think is the cause of your problem? Have you told anyone about your problem? Or sought help for it with dentists or doctors?

Hi Michael,

I'm not even with a dentist now, but think that I should register with one again-just to see if anything has gone wrong with my teeth.

I think that might be a good idea to seek a second opinion from another dentist. I have visited numerous dentist and only recently found out I had impacted wisdom teeth which might be the cause of my bad breath.

I hope that you find a new dentist soon so you can get your gums tested and your wisdoms x-rayed.

Some dentist and doctors dont think bad breath is a serious condition so they tend to shrug us off and ignore our complaints. if didnt do all these research I would not have gone this far as i am now.


I too have nasal odour but i think its related to oral as well. I have been suffereing about 4 years now. I never had bad breath before that. i suspect gums and wisdom teeth as the cause. i once thought m bad breath was because of my tonsils that I even went further to had a tonsillectomy.
Sad to say that my bad breath remained.

I find that the nasal irrigator doesnt work either. it actually made my bad breath and nasal odour worst when I used the water up my nose not to mention it gave me a nasal infection. I have been on diets which have not worked. So now I eat what I like when I like.

My previous dentist refused to help me last year December when I told him about my bleeding wisdom gums and he shrugged off the complaint and refused to treat me. Since then I got a second opinion from a new dentist who recognised that I indeed have a problem and should be treated.

Dont give up michael. Be persistent. Give the dentist thing another go.

Keep us posted. Hope you find your cure soon.

Drastic

Sorry Michael I'm just gonna ask Drastic something...

Drastic you say that your wisdom is impacted...so does it leaves smell when you floss it or touch it?