Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

I am so unbelievably happy to be writing this, absolutely 100% BIZARRE. So, for the past SIX years of my life, I have thought I had horrid breath.. so much to the point that when I was 13, I almost took my life because it was so debilitating. I could never talk to people in cars, I envied when someone could speak in close distance, and I always had that bad taste in my mouth, but could never smell it my breath.

It came to the point where I decided to live with it, and I led a happy normal life, but was always very concious about how close i spoke with someone, or sat beside them, or talked to them. It definitely changed my true outgoing personality. Recently, I felt like it was getting worse, and I was so fed up with it, that I decided to directly attack it. I went to my dentist, booked doctors appointments... the moment that triggered this sudden need to be BB free was one day, I hadn't slept as I was writing a couple papers and took ritalin to stay up for 72 hous (Crazy! The things you do as a uni student), and I noticed that people were reacting badly to me. I went home, did the spoon test which still smelled like SHIT, even after brushing my teeth constantly - normally when I do the test, I only have a faint sour smell which subsides after a few seconds. The whole night, I spent hours on this forum, looking up possible reasons for my breath, I was convinced i had acid reflux, PND (which I think I have a case of still), dairy intolerance... I stayed up for the rest of the night and didn't sleep, writing the rest of my paper and went straight to school after chugging a decaf green tea and 2 apples (ritalin doesn't make you hungry, I was running on barely any food for 72 hours!) And when I got to school, I went to the washroom, and I touched my tonsils to see if there was anything that released from them, to see if I had bb. Well I kept touching around my throat, and noticed my finger has a terrible sour tonsil stone smell. I pressed my tonsils and that clear fluid would release, and smell terrible... I then had 2 tiny stones release and this freaked me out incredibly. I spent the entire morning at an empty washroom at school picking at my tonsils... to reveal a massive green-coloured stone. Disgusting, smelled absolutely PUTRID. After this, I immediately called my doctor and scheduled an emergency appointment. She thought I had strep, so she gave me some antibioitcs As soon as I left, I went to shoppers, bought everything therabreath (don't use it anymore), and bought a nettipot, and a tongue scraper (normally i would just use my toothbrush).

I went home, and picked at my tonsils, and put listerine on them, until they no longer smelled. Then I went on a trip that night out of the province for the weekend. The entire weekend I would not eat dairy, and would avoid meat to make sure those weren't the reasons for my breath. Then, as soon as I got back, I scheduled an appointment with my dentist, and FORCED them to x-ray my mouth... turns out I had an infection, hence the awful taste I always had. Well, I had a tooth extracted and a few days later got my last wisdom tooth out. I don't regret taking these measures because the tooth extraction, besides the current blood I'm tasting, the bad taste disappeared completely, secondly the wisdom tooth was really painful and could potentially bring back my BB i it was not immediately dealt with.

Anyway! Moving on to the point here, I had a mental breakdown this morning. I just wanted this to end. So I booked an emergency app with my dentist, who probably thinks I'm crazy, and she released me in less than 5 minutes lol. I came home, had a huge cry session with my parents as I truly thought they were lying to me about not smelling anything, and I decided... it's final, I'm going to ask my good friends. I first asked my bestfriend, and I told her from the start the huge implications this has, how important it is I know.. she told me I'm absolutely crazy. Then, I asked my good guy friend who is brutally honest and has slept beside me in the morning when I could have the worst possible breath ever, and he told me it's all in my head, but was unbelievably helpful in trying to figure out the matter and possible reasons. And then, I asked another guy friend and another girl friend of mine ,who truly have never smelled anything. At work, I never really had reactions, I would deal with customers and they would not make any remarks, but I would also move very far from them and make sure that I didn't speak close to them.

Ultimately, I feel like this crazy obsession with my breath resulted from stress. This school year was not like last year, where I lived on campus and would always party, it was definitely more stressful with family health concerns, more difficult classes, and the pressure to get into a masters degree. The "revival" of this concern immediately started after the first month of school where I had unbelievable amounts of stress until now (I am currently writing this instead of studying for my final tomorrow. go me!) So i truly believe that stress has a tremendous implication on how you see yourself, and how you think. I always thought myself to be a rational and intelligent person, and when I would read this halitiphobia posts, I would think "omg, I hope to God that's me...", and in jealousy think bitterly of them... that perhaps they have gone crazy and are just fed up with their BB. As well, the moment that triggered it, when I had not slept for 72 hours, had not eaten, and taken ritalin which makes your mouth absurdly dry, would explain that terrible bout of breath.

I do KNOW I had BB at one point, and that was when I was 13 and could smell it. It was due to that decayed tooth I had fixed and had a root-canal on it. So I didn't just wake up one day and decided I smelled. I don't know if that was truly the cure of my BB, as I KNOW it continued on the year after. Maybe it was all the dental work I got done? Truthfully, I have no idea. I would never believe when my parents told me it didn't smell, and when my dad did, he said it was very mild. As well, I talked to my brother is very honest and said that it was not common for my breath to smell, but it also wasn't UNCOMMON, and he said when it did, it smelled like tonsil stones. He told me that this is just him cause he's really particular about breath lol. I currently am experiencing that smell now from my throat, as I just took ritalin (final tomorrow, I know this is completely unhealthy haha, but this is besides the point), also because I'm still healing from these extractions and can taste some blood. Also to add on, I am on chlorella, spirulina, and probiotics - I will probably still take these supplements, only because it has greatly helped my overall health, and I have been on a lot of antibiotics in the past.

I also don't think I have the best breath, but I definitely do not have the incredibly foul odour I thought I did have. I can't believe I spent the last 6 years of my life not talking in cars, and not responding to questions up-close, because of my breath... Bizarre! I TRULY think there are cases of you where this is present, and I was ADAMANT I had it until I asked these 4 people, and they are VERY honest. I also know they are probably right as I remember at a party once, I was intoxicated and hesitant to kiss a guy because of my breath, and when he went for it, I pushed him away saying I smelled like alcohol. He looked at my weirdly, and said, "you smell like gum...?" -- being drunk, I ran away and nothing happened -- probably a good thing from hind sight? hahah

Anyway, these are the first people I have asked in 6 years, and they are absolutely dumbfounded. I actually cried in happiness. Please, I urge you all, to PLEASE confirm you actually have a BB problem, and ASK MULTIPLE people.

I just realized this all today, and I'm still so dumbfounded and in disbelief that I'm still going through with that ENT appointment next week, just to make sure... also, to prevent possible future issues as my tonsils right now are a tad sore..

Anyway, I have learned I need to RELAX and de-stress.. because those TRULY make me mentally irrational, and make the breath issue far worse.

Thank GOD.

Btw, sorry for this UNBELIEVABLY long post which is probably riddled with spelling errors, I wrote it so sporadically. Ps. this also sheds light to those who are taking other medication that could be causing bad breath, guaranteed you will get the DRIEST mouth with rit, I drank litres of water and still was very dry.

so, you were never told you had bad breath?

most people here have been told that their breath stinks at some point. i am guessing that is when the problem starts for most of us which makes us think our breath stinks 100% of the time, when it most probably doesnt

I have! In the past when I was 13 - probably 9th grade, and when I hit 10th I'm ASSUMING i(looking back?) is when it stopped. My siblings would make fun of me, my uncle told my mom concerned, and my friends would laugh and poke fun. I also could smell it!

whatevz wrote:I have! In the past when I was 13 - probably 9th grade, and when I hit 10th, it stopped. My siblings would make fun of me, my uncle told my mom concerned, and my friends would laugh and poke fun. I also could smell it!

i always used to think, and still do sometimes, i could smell it. but i just think i have been able to taste it in some way.

whatevz, i have sent you a PM

I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with my breath still though, something to definitely get over.. hopefully after these extractions heal, I'll be a bit more confident in myself

Whateverz, I know its early days yet, but what are the differences (before and after) these extractions. Do you still get the bad tastes in your mouth?

Its great that you've talked about it with family and friends who seem to be speaking honestly about it all with you.

I am convinced that tonsil stones and very foul tonsil skank are a symtom of something else going on in the mouth/nose that are already giving rise to BB. Hopefully when everything has healed up this will go back down to normal how it was before.

Your story is so similar to mine, except mine went on until I reached 40.. OMG just typing 40 feels like im having a bad dream, but its not I AM 40.. but inside I feel more like 14, which is when BB completely took over my life. SHIT

Please keep us updated.

the taste in my mouth is amazing! lol, it's very neutral... I can eat a meal and not have an odd taste in my mouth, well not as bad as it was before! so that was definitely the cause of my nast taste.

Also, I'm still finding it hard to speak to people and not notice every single reaction around me and think it's me. I still am a little skeptical, I didn't realize halitiphobia truly could exist, it's still a hard process trying to not be so suspicious all the time. I cannot stress enough that you ask people and check, because I find this all so bizarre! I TRULY did believe I had it, and conned myself into believing a guy moved tables because of my breath.... he was probably just moving! lol, the power of our minds. It's going to be a slow process trying to get back to normal! I still don't talk to people super close-up.

btw Hal, how bad was yours? could you smell it a couple feet away?

Whatevz, that's exactly how I described the change in my mouth, it went from feeling like it would ignite if I breathed into a naked flame, to one that felt neutral under normal cirumstances of hydration and standard oral hygiene.

When the odour in my mouth would build up, it was described as smelling like "bad breath". It could be smelled if I breathed onto someone, but the odour did not linger and did not travel any distance or fill a room out. Infact, I have never come across anyone with bad breath that could do this.