this may help - esp. from those who found a solution

[waitingforrelief]

hi everyone.

since we all seem to have other health issues that we think are related to our breath, why not record them in detail here to help each other figure out what our individual causes are? by analyzing information that we all give, we might be able to find out more who's breath problem might be caused by the same/similar thing. if we are right about our breath being a symptom rather than a cause in and of itself, it is important to learn about other discomforts that we have. for instance, someone may not have a dry mouth problem, so his/her breath issue might be caused by something else other than another who has that issue. epecially for those of you who have found a "cure", please share what your previous symptoms were, in as much detail as you possibly could, to help us learn if it might work for us.

let's put our heads together and get this figured out!

thanks.

[waitingforrelief]

i will start with my own symptoms.

first of all, my problem started when i was a teenager. and it has been getting worse over the years.

i tried all the different brands of mouthwash, etc., and like most others, they SEEMED to work for a while until they didn't anymore.

my closest to having found a solution, as i've mentioned on another thread, was to starting taking probiotics - l. salivarius to be precise. however, either it's because i'd been storing them in room temperature for a month (i didn't see the instructions of them needing to be refrigerated) and the potency of the probiotics had decreased, or my body had developed some kind of resistance toward it. the first week it was amazing - i don't know for sure, but it felt like my breath was gone. and my mouth felt compeltely different. since then i've been gradually upping my dosage to a ridiculous amount, and still it's not as effective, if at all (I'm not sure). i've ordered some new ones from a different company. i'm waiting for its arrival to see if more potent (and refrigerated) l. salivarius would work for me.

anyway, i posted all this info because i think it's important to let you know that i've had an experience of something that seemed to work - and it was also the contrast of having at lesat a comparatively healthier mouth/breath that i realized what exactly my symptoms were/are.

so here they are:

VERY dry mouth - esp right in the middle of the tongue feels parched and almost like it's been raised to the roof of my mouth. and the dryness gets worse in the evening. no amount of water/liquid helps. it's an awful feeling. dryness in general as well. in my sinuses, eyes, etc.. the salivarius helped a lot, and still does to a certain extent.

fatigue - i think partly it was due to my being exhausted in being self-conscious about my breath with people. by the time i get home i'm completely exhausted. however, i do believe that it's not just psychological, but physical as well. i felt much more energetic physically, as if my body was running so much smoother esp. when i first started the salivarius. the fatigue feels very much related to the dryness, actually.

constipation. i'm quite severely chronically constipated. when i started on the probiotics, all of a sudden bowel movements became smooth and MUCH more regular. it was such a relief. it's still better than before the salivarius now, but not as good as when i first started.

taste disorder. i can taste my breath and it alters the taste of food. altho' how, i don't exactly know. i know sourness is definitely one of them. but it just tastes nasty sometimes. i can eat some sugar now - in the past, anything slightly sweet would make my breath really bad.

breath quality - i think this is important to describe:

metallic, sour, fecal, etc. i feel like there are so many different kinds of smell to my breath, i can't even describe them all. it's one of the things that's overwhelming about having this condition. if one smell is gone, there are still a few others lingering around. the salivarius had helped with the fecal breath for weeks now. this week it seems to have come back. but again, like i said, i need to make sure that i'm taking potent probiotics before ruling that out.

and when the salivarius first started to not work as well, to my perception - my breath seemed to not so much to be nasty as it used to be. but it just wasn't totally fresh. like it's a little stale. but i had no strange taste and what a relief to not have dry mouth. it's so extremely uncomfortable.

i do have some post-nasal drip. and i'd had an operation on my sinuses when i was in my early teens. altho' why, i don't really know. i'll have to ask my parents. and in fact, it does seem that my breath problem started maybe within a year or two after the surgery. however, my dad also has halitosis, and he'd never had a sinus operation. not even a sinus problem that i am aware of.

so maybe genetically i'm already more prone to halitosis because of my dad. but the surgery made me even more susceptible to it.

that's all i can think of now. i'll post more if i remember more later.

[waitingforrelief]

hi everyone -

just wanted to mention one more thing -

please also include the quality/description of your breath if you don't mind. thanks.

[austuser]

My bad breath first came to my attention when i was 18. My brother always told me I had horrible ****ing breath and that i should brush my teeth. I dissmissed him as being an asshole (brotherly love).

But i started to notice mates at university pull away from me and react everytime i talked to them. This is when the paranoia and stress settled in. I was a heavy coffee drinker and loved sweets, and noticed that my breath was a definate fecal smell. It wasnt until i was 22 that i started using breezecare's system of tounge scraping and probiotics, which works fairly well for me for most of the day but i still get bad breath most days and when i go out on the town. But making sure my tongue is clean is the best way to keep bad breath at bay. This, unfortunately, is very expensive.

I had terrible digestive problems for the last two years. This included diareah, bloating and foul bouts of gas. I finally realised i was lactose intollerant and now avoiding dairy has gotten rid of that problem.

I also have bad hayfever. My nose is always blocked and i have constant post nasal drip. Recently i discovered that Nilodor, a concentrated doeoderizor, clears up my sinus problem, and this has really improved my bad breath. I am 99% sure it is because of Nilodor. I will still get bad breath when Nilodor looses its effectiveness after 2 or 3 days, but i just inhale it again and the problem usually resolves soon after.

I started Metronidazole today and hopefully that has some benefi.

Btw, my dad has chronic halitosis also. This could be genetic. He also is completely bald, and i have been diagnosed with male pattern baldness, with a heavily receeding hairline at the temples and i will probably be bald by the time im 30. Yay.

However, no one else in my family has baldness or halitosis, including my twin brother, the asshole

[Larc400]

This survey was put together for the very reasons mentioned above, so please complete it if you haven't already:

http://www.halitos.se/bbsurvey2007/

Results will be compiled once we've reached an impressive enough number of entrants.


/Karl

[noptical]

This survey was put together for the very reasons mentioned above, so please complete it if you haven't already:

http://www.halitos.se/bbsurvey2007/

Results will be compiled once we've reached an impressive enough number of entrants.


/Karl

Yeap I filled that although its good to post here in detail too so others can relate with their problem.
I'm at work now (boss shouldnt find out that I visit sites irrelevant to my work right? ) and cant write too much so I'll post when I go home.

ps. waitingforrelief its nice to find out that dry mouth has the same or similar cause to bb because I always thought that our body doesnt produce much saliva due to genetic reasons or some kind of problem with the salivary glands and such. So maybe even if its the dry mouth is what causes us bad breath, we know it has the same root.

By the way, its good to post the age also and what age you believe the bb started as well as what medical exams or procedures you have gone through.

[waitingforrelief]

Yeap I filled that although its good to post here in detail too so others can relate with their problem.
I'm at work now (boss shouldnt find out that I visit sites irrelevant to my work right? ) and cant write too much so I'll post when I go home.

ps. waitingforrelief its nice to find out that dry mouth has the same or similar cause to bb because I always thought that our body doesnt produce much saliva due to genetic reasons or some kind of problem with the salivary glands and such. So maybe even if its the dry mouth is what causes us bad breath, we know it has the same root.

By the way, its good to post the age also and what age you believe the bb started as well as what medical exams or procedures you have gone through.

Karl, I agree with noptical that it's good to have another detailed description on a thread. i did fill out the survey - but my guess is that the result is not posted yet?

anyway, it's good to have this discussion here instead of just a survey, i think.

noptical, my dry mouth feels something that comes from my body internally instead of just thirst. it's the most awful feeling, and the bad taste almost always accompanies it. the tongue would feel very strange - almost like it's swollen even. i even thought about diabetes - because you're supposed be very thirsty. and i also pee a lot. anything that i drink comes out right away. but then since the probiotics improved that, maybe it's not the reason. perhaps i should check it out with a doctor. do you feel that kind of dryness?

but the dryness definitely is worse when i'm nervous. more than a few times, i'd worry about it when i'm with people, and then keep drinking to keep myself hydrated to no avail. and then the minute i get home, my mouth is moist and comfortable. altho' that's not always the case.

i also have a history of depression. and the onset of bb was after depression had set in. i don't have it anymore, but anxiety definitely makes it worse.

sometimes i can smell my own breath when i exhale through my nose. especially when it is the fecal/sewer breath that's bothering me, i can smell it a lot through my exhalation. does anyone have that?

i also would like to mention that the salivarius has helped with my digestion a lot. i can't quite pinpoint what it was/is besides the increase in bowel movements, but i could just feel it. and that's why i know that probiotics are at least one of the ways in the right direction. it's not a placebo effect since i felt the change in my well-being so dramatically - in all these other areas that i feel are related to my breath problem as well.

noptical, have you ever tried probiotics? sounds like you have a screwy digestive system as well.

lastly, i am now 31, and bb started i'd say when i was about 15 or so. i can't remember exactly. at first it was just sort of a chronic morning breath. gradually more and more different smells went into my breath - fecal, sewer, sourness, and then some that i can't even describe. the salivarius seemed to have gotten rid of most smells except for the chronic morning breath. but let me tell you, i was very thankful that at least that's the kind of breath that normal people have anyway, if not all day.

and i'm awaiting my new salivarius. breath is getting worse this week. i also started oil pulling a few days ago. and i don't know my breath worsening is because of that, since i read that sometimes you get worse before you get better with oil pulling. but i know it's doing something to my body and want to keep doing it because the first day i did it, my energy level was way up. i normally am useless whenever i even sleep a little less, and would get really tired in the afternoon even if i sleep enough. the difference was amazing. with more energy, i've actaully been less prone to feel low about my breath even tho' it has been getting worse this week.

optimism is very important for us. it keeps us being able to still enjoy what life has to offer while setting aside a space to look for a cure. i've been trying to imagine if i'd trade this condition for something else, and realize that it really could be worse. i would never trade having all my limbs, and/or senses for not having bb, for example. i wouldn't even trade how i look, or my personality, or my skills/talent for it. in fact, i realized that there's very little that i'd give up to trade for fresh breath. i see this as an ongoing journey of healing myself - which i've done in so many other areas as well. maybe there's no magic pill, but i've already improved it so much at this point. i'm hopeful.

it helps that i'm typing this in the morning as well. i'm usually much more optimistic at this time.

[waitingforrelief]

me again. i've returned to post another symptom -

smelly saliva and a film of stickiness on my teeth and gum, which also has a taste to it.

[Larc400]

Dear Waiting,
What brand of Salivarius do you take..?
My digestive system seems okay though I can never really kick the feeling that it is somehow involved. I only have some old bottles of BLIS K12 lozenges, but I'd rather test the same stuff you had some success with

Yeah I totally agree it's good to put down as much details as poss here. I'll get to it soon too

I think the next big thing we should focus on is Saliva... how to increase the flow or even how to alter it's pH or chemical make-up. Any saliva experts in the house..?

[waitingforrelief]

Dear Waiting,
What brand of Salivarius do you take..?
My digestive system seems okay though I can never really kick the feeling that it is somehow involved. I only have some old bottles of BLIS K12 lozenges, but I'd rather test the same stuff you had some success with

Yeah I totally agree it's good to put down as much details as poss here. I'll get to it soon too

I think the next big thing we should focus on is Saliva... how to increase the flow or even how to alter it's pH or chemical make-up. Any saliva experts in the house..?

dear larc,

i've been taking the R garden L. Salivarius. altho' as i've mentioned, either it's because i had stored it in room temperature for almost a month and the live bacteria is mostly dead, or that my body is building resistance, i am now taking 25 capsules every time for it to work! (started out with 4 at a time)

i have ordered some other kinds of probiotics from customprobiotics.com. however, the kind that i ordered had 6 different strains in it, one of which was salivarius as well. but not as concentrated. it makes a noticeable difference in my digestive system, but not in my breath. i think salivarius is the main (proven) thing that i need for my odor problem. so i've ordered some pure salivarius in powder form from custom probiotics. it's much more concentrated than the R Garden one. i'll let you know how it works after i try it. i have a feeling it should work better than the r garden ones. if not only for its much higher cfu's.

i also found some chewable acidophilus that contained 30% of salivarius and would take them throughout the day when i had them. that seemed to have helped, but i'm not entirely sure. that's why i'm curious about the kforce chewable lozenges. http://www.breezecare.com/usacard/start ... reath.html

if they are highly concentrated streptococcus salivarius K12, they should work better than the chewable wafers that I got from the drugstore. i'll start another thread to see if anyone has experience with them.

larc, i want to let you know that i have much, much more saliva when the salivarius works. today was actually the first day that i went up to 25 capsules with the salivarius. before i took it, all morning i had really bad fecal/sewer breath. (but no dry mouth. i had taken some 6 strain probiotic powder in the morning which probably had helped with the dry mouth but not the odor.) i kept smelling it even without my mouth being open. about 1/2 hour after i took them, it started to go away. the interesting thing was, i had to work after i ate. and it was a bit of a high-pressured situation and so i was nervous and high strung. and i could feel my breath coming back, along with the dry mouth. i started to feel discouraged, thinking that even at 25 capsules they're not really working anymore. after work, i was in the car with some people, winding down. and i felt my saliva coming back and the smell going away again. it's been about 4 hours since i took the salivarius, my mouth still feels clean and i don't think i have bb, as far as i can tell. so the salivarius is definitely helping me a lot still. i just feel really insecure not knowing if it's fool-proof, and if i've taken enough. not to mention popping 25 pills a few times a day is really more than annoying! but still, it's worth it to have a clean mouth.

i'm hoping that once i get the potent powdered salivarius, it will mean that i won't have to spend as much on it and that i won't have to take as much.

[waitingforrelief]

POSTURE

i also wanted to see if anyone feels that your breath has something to do with your posture and alignment. i've met other people with halitosis, but this one friend who had scoliosis as a child - his breath is probably the worst. i've always had a lot of physical problems with pains and injuries since a child - some probably from emotional stress, depression, etc.. and i'm sure for bb sufferers we add even more tension to our bodies by tensing up being with people, shying away from them, holding our breaths. so it's sort of the chicken and the egg thing where it's hard to tellw hich leads to what, but it certainly is worth exploring, in my opinion.

as i've mentioned, today i was in a high-pressure situation at work. and i could feel my body tensing up quite a bit and that was when my breath sort of came back. afterwards, when i took the time to re-adjust and breathe and re-center myself, my tongue relaxes down and i began to feel my saliva flow again. and shortly after my breath either got better or almost went away. (i have a hard time believing that it was actually not there even if i couldn't smell it.)

[waitingforrelief]

from not talking about this at all ever - now that i'm starting to write about it, it seems like i can't stop.

i've noticed that my tongue is not the origin of odor, but between my teeth, gum, on my saliva, and the oral cavity in general. i use a tongue cleaner everyday but it doens't make much of a difference. when i have the sewer/fecal odor, i can REALLY smell it on my floss. the odor sometimes only exists between certain teeth (in a certain area), sometimes it's everywhere. the fact that sometimes it's only in selective areas in the mouth leads me to believe that it's caused by something "deeper" than the mouth, like the digestive tract, for example....

what do you guys think?

[noptical]

i also wanted to see if anyone feels that your breath has something to do with your posture and alignment. i've met other people with halitosis, but this one friend who had scoliosis as a child - his breath is probably the worst. i've always had a lot of physical problems with pains and injuries since a child - some

Maybe but its probably just a coincidence. I have mild scoliosis and bb. My cousin has scoliosis too, but he's bb free 24/7.

Also, I heard hiatal hernia can cause bb. Can it be closely related to scoliosis?

[noptical]

from not talking about this at all ever - now that i'm starting to write about it, it seems like i can't stop.

i've noticed that my tongue is not the origin of odor, but between my teeth, gum, on my saliva, and the oral cavity in general. i use a tongue cleaner everyday but it doens't make much of a difference. when i have the sewer/fecal odor, i can REALLY smell it on my floss. the odor sometimes only exists between certain teeth (in a certain area), sometimes it's everywhere. the fact that sometimes it's only in selective areas in the mouth leads me to believe that it's caused by something "deeper" than the mouth, like the digestive tract, for example....

what do you guys think?

Hm I think you should be tested for periodontitis immediately. No joke, do it as sooner as you can before it gets worse (if thats the case).

[waitingforrelief]

Hm I think you should be tested for periodontitis immediately. No joke, do it as sooner as you can before it gets worse (if thats the case).

you think so, noptical? everytime i go the dentist, they always tell me that i have healthy gum and teeth. and the smell between my teeth also disappears when my salivarius works... so it seems like it's from the digestive tract instead of the gum itself.

does anyone have a problem with odor between your teeth?