Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

This is my first post having suffering from chronic bad breath for 4 years.

At first I didnt know what was causing my bad breath but I slowly started to notice things and eliminate things.

The first key contributor I discovered were tonsil stones. Following removal of my tonsils 1 year ago I found my bad breath reduced about 50% in smell. This was a massive achievement at the time but was quickly forgotton as I still had the problem albeit less potent.

The next thing I noticed was how an impacted wisdom tooth was shockingly very smelly around the impacted gum. I consequently removed this and gladly experienced a further reduction in the potency of my bad breath.

I am now in the situation where I can achieve fresh breath for short periods of time following brushing and using a mouthwash but I cannot maintain fresh breath longer than approx 2 hours or for approx 30 minutes when eating or drinking ANY foods.

I now believe my remaining bad breath is soley coming from my tongue. If I brush and clean my tongue I have no bad breath but as stated previously the freshness only lasts an hour or two. During this hour or two, it appears bacteria is slowly growing on my tongue gradually causing bad breath. The smell from the tongue is increased if I eat any foods or have a drink. It seems like anything touching the tongue aids the formation of bad breath causing bacteria. Drinking any hot or warm drink is the worse culprit but for some reason putting anything in my mouth seems to give me bad breath. I can also feel that I have bad breath due to a mucousy/sticky feeling I can sense around the tongue. I dont appear to have a white furry tongue so I am not sure why my tongue is giving me a hard time. I regularly scrape the tongue and have tried togue gel but none offer long lasting results.

Does anyone else suffer from bad breath resulting purely from the tongue? If so what did you do about it.

I find my current situation bizzare because as a child I could get away without brushing my teeth from a smell point of view by simply eating something. The motion of eating scrapes bacteria off the tongue and removes all bad breath. Nowadays it is the opposite in that anything I eat must be followed by teeth cleaning or otherwise will lead to a smelly sticky tongue and thus bad breath.

Any suggestions or should I now go and ask a dentist?

do you have dry mouth? if so that could be the culprit behind the tongue smell. try using a scraper like TUNG Brush or OraBrush. These two are the best. Instead of gel or toothpaste, get some Himalayan Sea Salt. It's a pink, very pure salt that contains traces of dozens of minerals. If you apply it to a tongue scraper before scraping, it turns your tongue a nice rosy pink and promotes saliva flow

For bacterial imbalance on the tongue try these solutions:

- The Orabrush, it's excellent.

- 3 % hydrogen peroxide mouthwash (dilute it with an equal amount of water)

- 3 to 5 drops of tea tree oil in enough water for one mouthwash application.

- Brush tongue with a sonic toothbrush. Its dynamic fluid technology can dislodge bacteria up to 1/8th inch beyond tip of bristles.

This should work for you.

Agree with all said.

Brushing the tongue is the next step to temporarily preventing odours, but keep in mind that there may be a source beyond orals causing the overgrowth, that may be a lot more difficult to control.

All the steps help, but until we find the actual internal source, we might not be able to eliminate the odour 100%.

I'll add that baking soda is an alternative for tongue brushing. Also don't get carried away with tongue brushing. You will not need to scrub it vigorously.

Good luck.

I have the Tung brush and have used Tung branded gel with no success in terms of a complete cure.

Anyone know possible causes of overgrowth of bacteria on the tongue?

I think mucus is a potential cause, as it is food for bacteria. It originates in the sinuses and drips into the back of the throat and tongue.

elliott wrote:Also don't get carried away with tongue brushing. You will not need to scrub it vigorously.

I agree. I've heard some people scrape their tongues so hard that it bleeds! This only makes the situation worse.

Scraping it gently should suffice.

Speaking of tongue brushing, i'm hearing a lot about this orabrush thing. They did a lot of heavy marketing for it on YouTube. Has anyone used it yet? If so, care to post some experiences with it?

i have tried the orabrush, the tung brush and a couple of other different types of tongue brushes and none of them done me any good.

i dont see any difference between the tung brush and the orabrush. so if you have tried the tung brush and it never worked then i doubt the orabrush would