Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

hello,
I've read so many posts on this forum and others, I'm at a loss with my problem and don't know where to start. I cannot say how long exactly I've been suffering from bad breath, simply because I personally have not been able to notice it myself. However I can say that the first time anyone brought it to my attention was when I was around 13 or 14... around 14 years ago.

I have never spoken to anyone about it and just like many other people on here it has been something which has taken over my whole life and taken control over my personality, often portraying myself as an antisocial person with not much to say. I have always felt extremely sensitive about what people think of me, verging on being paranoid about appearing badly in someone else's eyes. So having bad breath, on top of this, has made me more introverted than ever, and is something I am just unable to talk about with anyone, be it family or long-term girlfriend.

Because of this, at the age of 28 and having lived this for all my adult life, I am only now just taking the first step towards looking for help, which is by signing up here and posting this message.

I haven't been to a doctor nor dentist in years, however I'm generally in good health and haven't needed specific medical help. I don't eat junk food and I'm pretty certain I have a relatively healthy set of teeth, no gum diseases.

Unfortunately, now that I'm ready to seek medical help, I'm not in the best situation as I'm originally from the UK but have been living in the US for the past 18 months, and I don't have medical insurance over here. And I know that I won't be able to get the help I need just by popping over to the UK for a week or two. I've seen other people on here who have spent months if not years trying different remedies and seeking all kinds of advice.

I guess the reason why I'm posting on here is to maybe get pointed in the right direction as to what the cause of my problem is.

When initially reading about bad breath I thought it was due to the back of my tongue, so I took tongue cleaning to an extreme (and still do now by habit).

However then I read about Post Nasal Drip, but I couldn't really relate to it as I didn't really have that much of a sensation of mucus dripping in the back of my throat. Although at times I do have a mild amount of mucus there which I occasionally snort away, but I think that's common in most people?

Then I came on here and saw all these surreal posts by KeepTrying about Candida, which I'd never heard about before. I searched for more about this online, because truthfully this sounded like a scam to sell drugs more than anything else, and I came up with exactly the same posts written in other forums by the same author which made it even more sketchy. For a brief moment I considered the fact that I may have Candida.

Then I read up some more about wisdom teeth. I considered this in the past, but didn't believe it applied to me simply because I think I had bad breath before my wisdom teeth came out.

Considering I haven't been able to speak to anyone about this, I can only put two and two together to try and figure out in which direction I should be looking for advice. So here are the facts that I can present to anyone here who may have more knowledge than I:

-My bottom 2 wisdom teeth are impacted: they are both half revealed, half hidden under a pocket of gum
-Touching these spots leaves a bad smell on my finger, even shortly after brushing my teeth
-My tongue looks pretty healthy, doesn't have much of a white coating that I've been reading about.
-I don't think I always had it, but now I have a small amount of mucus in my throat, at the same level as my nostrils, that out of habit I snort (gently) away. I think this isn't too abnormal, but I'm putting it out there just in case.
-I'm fairly sure that I release bad breath right after swallowing - through my nose.
-I often have a feeling that it smells bad even when I'm not breathing with my mouth, even if my mouth is closed and I'm just breathing with my nose. I have this impression because my brother also suffers from BB, not sure if in the same way as me, but these last two points are what I've gathered by connecting his bad breath to the reaction of people around me, pointing to the fact that maybe my breath is the same.

I think that's all I can say for now. At this point I'm actually hoping that all this time it has been caused by my wisdom teeth, and that I can just get them taken out when I next go to London. But it would be great to get anyone's advice on this.

Many thanks

You'll never know unless you have those wisdom teeth out.

Thanks for the reply.
Over the past 2 days I have been scouring this forum, I really wish I had come across it earlier, as everything has become very clear all of a sudden. I don't know why I didn't think of my wisdom teeth before, I just thought it was normal for all people to have bad smell in their wisdom teeth. I even thought it was normal that they were half buried in the gum.

I'm not going to get my hopes up, as I've seen other people on here with the same reaction as mine who went and got their teeth removed only to discover that nothing changed, however I will still focus on getting them removed.

I'd still like to get these points clarified though:

-only my bottom wisdom teeth are affected. Does this mean I should only remove these? Logic is telling me yes...

-does the swallowing symptom (like i said in my original post) have a connection with wisdom teeth? It doesn't really make sense to me, and for this reason I'm not really keeping my hopes up for my teeth being the culprit.

As I'm in a difficult situation (English person living in the US with no medical insurance), I'd like some advice as to what I should do to see a dentist. I'm going to the UK for work for a couple of weeks, will it be realistic for me to book an appointment before I head over there? Or do you have to visit the dentist first to book an appointment? I see people go for second check-ups after the operation: would I have the time to get this done?

How does it work here in the US? Would I be able to go privately, and how much does it cost more or less?


Sorry if this another run of the mill desperate-post like a thousand others.

Hi,

Many of us have been looking for a long time so you are not alone, it effects different people in different ways...

You said - My bottom 2 wisdom teeth are impacted: they are both half revealed, half hidden under a pocket of gum
-Touching these spots leaves a bad smell on my finger, even shortly after brushing my teeth

At least you have located the area, thats a huge headstart...

not really properly accessible to clean? how long have they been there accumulating food without cleaning? whilst they were slowly appearing in the wrong way they alter the way gums sit, and can create gaps & pockets that cannot be seen by you but exist.

have you ever flossed after 3 days, smelt the floss and said "yuck" now imagine that stuff gathering in the same spot for years,
if just touching these spots without much pressure leaves a bad smell on your finger, then sounds like the wisdom teeth area is infected, which is known as perocoronitis, it is common for impacted wisdom teeth or the area to become infected, i would be investigating getting them removed which involves an x-ray, you want the x-ray machine to be an "all the way round show everything including decay machine"

they are both on the bottom which is better then the top, as the top are near sinuses an not so straight forward to remove.

its quite possible that there is a gap or pocket where food and bacteria can sit around the wisdom teeth, so it may not be the actual teeth that are decaying but they are responsible for causing the issue,

you thought it was your tongue, well a lot of bad stuff gathers there, in addition, your 2 bottom teeth are leaking awful smelling stuff, well, when you sleep you lay horizontal (unless you are a bat lol) so the stuff from your impacted wisdom teeth gums could leak and quite possibly drip onto your tongue

you could try oil pulling which can draw out bacteria and food from gums, this can take a significant amount of time in giving you the desired results, basically on an empty stomach you take one tablespoon of oil in the mouth but do not swallow it. Move Oil Slowly in the mouth as rinsing or swishing, sip, suck and pull through the teeth' for fifteen to twenty minutes, i do it for an hour on my drive for work.
This process makes oil thoroughly mixed with saliva. Swishing activates enzymes , the oil must not be swallowed, so spit it out!
everyone uses a different oil, i flick between the 3 oils, coconut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, and i use only unrefined organic versions

also rinse with a salt solution 3 times a day,

you could try an electric rotary type toothbrush loaded with salt/sea salt this may help clean the wisdom gum areas.

Regards Vinnie

Hey Vinnie, thanks for the tips.

I'll do my best to get an appointment with a dentist somehow, even if it means going private here in the US.


You mention two things about the wisdom teeth: firstly that the tooth is infected and is decaying, secondly that it may not be infected but just have some pockets in the gums that accumulate food.

So you're saying that if it's the latter, then I could try home-remedies to just keep the pockets clean?

But considering that this has been a life-long problem and that my oral hygiene isn't disastrous, I'm guessing that it must be the teeth that are infected. Would they remain infected for so many years, without getting critical... they seem pretty happy from what I can see, I'd imagine that an infection after some time would turn to horrendous results, which, apart from breath problems, I'm not seeing.

At random times during the year one of the wisdom teeth gets really sore (maybe every 2 or 3 months) and I take extra care in trying to clean it despite the pain.
Is this what you call an infection? In which case it comes and goes?

Many thanks again

Going round in circles with that last post, sorry... I'm clearly a bit confused.

if it was easy you would not be here, your last post made sense to me so maybe i am confused as well

it is always difficult to offer advice over the internet without seeing, also i am neither a dentist or doctor but pressing the gum resulting in a bad smell is not how it should be, so it "could" be decaying teeth or it "could" be a pocket issue,

an infection within the mouth is what i would call bacteria/pus & bad smell, does not always come with pain

if it was a pocket or somewhere for bad stuff to gather home remedies to clean is worth a go, hence the salt solution and the oil pulling info, i rinse my mouth swish and suck water through my teeth and around my mouth after every meal it is amazing what is left behind and can lodge itself in.

if it was a decaying impacted wisdom tooth i would expect raw pain alot more then every few months and a swollen face to go with the pain, but pain every few months an a constant bad smell from the area is, to me, a warning sign of something not right, if you do decide to get the impacted teeth removed then i would agree only the bottom wisdom teeth need to be removed unless anything else comes to light,
you say they seem ok from what you can see, the issue is actually what you cannot see, pain coming an going + constant bad smell by pressing the gum is the result of something you cannot see but is present, it could be the tip of the iceberg...

i understand you are now in the US, not sure if this helps but in the UK my understanding is impacted wisdom teeth are removed by the hospital.

you say it has been a life long problem, you may have, or had, more then one source contributing to your problem, as an example you may have smoked for 15 odd years or had a food source in your diet that your body cannot digest properly causing an odur and unknowingly stopping these will prevent one source, but by then your impacted wisdom teeth area took over giving off a smell,

hope that makes sense?

Regards vinnie

Makes sense, thanks Vinnie.

I'm hoping it all comes down to wisdom teeth, I expect this is a general feeling most people have as it's easily solvable.

You've offered enough advice which I'm grateful for, however you mention multiple causes. This brings me back to my original point about getting reactions shortly after swallowing. Could this be connected to wisdom teeth, or does this indicate that it is indeed something else entirely?

Quite simply, if you rub a finger around any gum area and it smells, there's a very good chance that its causing a stench on your tongue. That's what happened with me.

The sense of taste on your tongue relies on the spongy layer of coating that takes on whatever taste you happen to be eating at any given moment. So, if you have skank pouring out from somewhere, which then mixes in with your saliva, its eventually going to cause your tongue to take on that odour and linger in the same way that odours from foods recently eaten will do. The tongue then acts like a reservoir of stench.

Some people have removed teeth that had no apparent odour coming from them in the hope that it might be causing BB in some indirect way, such as sinus invasion for example. So for some it's been a gamble which they've determined for themselves was worth taking.

Your "swallowing symptom" might be purely consequential and nothing to do with your BB or your teeth, but you never know. If you have tonsils still, it could be that. When I had tonsils still, it sometimes felt like i'd just swallowed mothballs when i'd swallow. Depending on how badly skanked your tonsils are, this could be releasing a stench into your breath.

I also had BB in my childhood. I know today that this was purely for lack of basic hygiene (BB didnt matter to me at that age). This also gave me doubts that my wisdom tooth could be responsible for my BB, especially after a tonsillectomy made absolutely no difference. So try not to make such associations. This is about trial and error. If you've identified something as potentially important as odourous teeth or gum, then in my opinion and based on my own experience, you should definitely get that dealt with.

Generally, a partially submerged tooth will have a pocket around the crown (enamel) part of the tooth because gum does not adhere to this part. This type of pocket is not the same as the pocket caused by periodontitis for example, which is an actual breach of the seal that your gum is supposed to have around every tooth in order to allow them to protrude securely from our jaw into our mouth and enable them to function as food-grinders, and to keep the bacteria and debris from getting into our bloodstream and internal systems. Any type of pocket will produce stench because of the stagnation and anaerobic situation which forms there. And yes the tooth itself could be decayed and contributing to the problem.

You can try irrigating the pocket, but bacteria and debris soon build up again and the stench quickly returns. That pain you are getting every 2 or 3 months is like vinnie said, either pericoronitis, or something deeper, which is what I'd have occasionally and I couldnt speak or move my jaw for a week or so. It hurt like hell.

You could always try telephoning a dentist near where you'll be staying to find out what your options are. A lot of people from the UK travel to eastern european countries like Poland. Its a hell of a lot cheaper if you need expensive treatment. Worth considering.

http://www.doctorspiller.com/extractions_2.htm

Its all explained quite well on that site.

the bad smell coming from your wisdom area is more then possibly the cause or one of the causes of the stench that you are tasting,smelling and swallowing,

even if it is not all of the source, it is a contributer, like one of the points in halitosisux well explained post - people do the trial an error which is true, you on the other hand have identified an odorous gum or teeth, this also in my opinion is something that needs to be dealt with.

best wishes.

Vinnie

thank you both very much

hi foundlad

i can relate to alot of your story. i have always been quite a quiet and sensitive person even before i was told i had bad breath. after being told that i have bad breath, it is like the final nail in the coffin that i will ever be truly happy. i can honestly say every day is now a struggle to get through. i see people every day getting on with their lives not giving bad breath a single thought and it is becoming more and more difficult to deal with. i was first told i had a problem towards the end of 2008 and there has never been even an hour since then that i have not thought about my breath.

i dont know if you read through any of my story but i was hopeful it was my wisdom teeth. i got all my wisdom teeth out between nov 09 and apr 10. there was one lower wisdom teeth that was definitely causing a rotten taste in my mouth which has disappeared in time since getting that tooth out, but i dont know if it was that taste that was causing my bad breath

continued

if i touched that wisdom tooth with my finger and smelt my finger i never really got an odour on my finger but if i rubbed that area with my tongue i definitely got an odour from that area. so i am glad i got rid of my wisdom teeth because of that and also peace of mind

even when that wisdom tooth was in it never made my whole tongue stink like halitosisux's. just the middle third of my tongue, which has made me doubt that it was that wisdom tooth and that was just a coincidence

i still get an odour now on the middle part of my tongue but it is hard to remember if it was worse when my wisdom tooth was in, and the middle third of my tongue is just a part of my mouth that gets smelly when things are not right.

i know morning breath is normal and it is always the this same part of my tongue in the morning which is very bad. it is not as smelly throughout the day but there is always some odour on it

all i would recommend is to get all your wisdom teeth out, including your upper ones. just to be sure

good luck

Danger, do you have a deep groove that runs down the centre of your tongue? This is an actual known cause of BB.

halitosisux wrote:Danger, do you have a deep groove that runs down the centre of your tongue? This is an actual known cause of BB.

hi sux

i wouldnt say i have a deep groove that runs down the centre of my tongue. i have a small line down the centre on the front third of my tongue, but i am not really worried about that though because i get no odour on that part of my tongue