Reminscing.....

[hali_grl]

I am 26 years old now and developed bb at 19-20 and it became chronic a few years ago. I sometimes sit back and reminsce on my life before bb............I truly think God I got my bb after highschool and feel sorry for anyone who maybe in highschool now or suffered this terrible problem since childhood. I remember going to my senior prom which was held at Disney World in Orlando, FL. It was me, my sis, our friends and a bunch of other rowdy highschool seniors on a lux bus (5 more followed behind us) headed there. We had so much fun I can't for the life of me picture missing moments like that. Grad night we all went to Wild Waters where we swam, enjoyed water rides, and snacked on free pizza and ice cream until 4 am. Two of my best friends from out of town had come up for my graduation and we met a group of older guys that nite so we hooked up & followed them to a after party where we had an awesome time as well just laughing, dranking, and kicking it.

I remember after graduating me and my sis getting our very first place togather. Our house was like the party house everyone neigbhors, friends, family would come over & we would play games, snack, drank, watch movies, listen to music, etc. We would always go out on the weekends. Our ritual was every friday meet up go get our hair and nails done before we hung out that night and had a good time. (Sighs)

I think because I had that normalcy and the life of an average American teenager I am more prone to falling into bouts of longing for my old life back. I miss the fun, outgoing, family/friend oriented girl I once was. I think i get depressed and down over this more than others because I lived an awesome fun free spritied life before bb ruined it and made me a recluse weirdo. if i had never known what that was like I believe I would be more inclined to adapting to this lifestyle and continue to live as normal. But after truly living and breathing freely for some many years i could never just adapt or settle for my life like this. Even though I had an amazing time as a teenager my 20's are the years I am truly suppose to be living and partying making dumb mistake but having just good hearted fun. I should Not be worrying about opening my mouth or the best way to avoid ppl. I cannot sit around and wait for a cure to fall in my lap by researchers and funding groups who don't suffer from this issue so they have no idea of the urgency. As long as God gives me strength and a right mind I am going to keep on searching and trying any & everything until I get an answer. I want my old life back......

[HigherThoughts]

Yea I feel like I took my old life for granted. Didn't realize I could miss the simple things so much. Something as small as just being able to walk into a store and not having to worry about my bad breath. Even just going anywhere in public that has a lot of people around. I can't really do that anymore.

Some days I feel miserable, frustrated, and hopeless. I know I should keep hope and keep looking for a cure, but its tough. It's tough when I don't know what is the cause of my problem and when I don't know what the hell I can do to fix it. The only thing that helps me cope is this forum.

[coconuthead]

I am one of those individuals who suffered from bad breath in my teens. I was first told I had bad breath when I was 10 years old. My friends told me in the hallway at school. The good thing is that they never said anything about it again after that. It wasn't until high school, when people began saying things about it. At that point, all of my old friends went to a different high school and I began making new friends, and my new friends would constantly make little comments about my breath. When I got to the 10th grade, I hardly talked at school. The only time I was actually myself was at home or around family members. It got worse as the years progressed. By the end of my 11th grade year, I had began to isolate myself. I was slowly distanting myself from family that weren't immediate family. I began to fear going out to public places where I was forced to talk. In the 12th grade, I was a total recluse. I only talked in one particular class, because the seats were space a part really well, and the class was very small. There were only like 9 or 10 people in the class. I didn't attend my senior prom, which I so badly wanted to go to. I didn't participate in any senior activities, and I almost didn't go to my high school graduation. Here I am today, 19 years old, and have never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, or never went on a date. I've now began to isolate myself from my immediate family, although I'm trying not to. These are all the people I have. I have no friends. I'm struggling in college, because college evolves around being social, whether it's giving a speech or presentation, participating in groups projects or lab assignments; it's all so overwhelming and it becomes stressful. I have those days where I just come home from school crying, questioning God why did this happen to me, which is something I know I should never do. I was taught to never question God. Honestly, never having a boyfriend really doesn't bother me. I know it would bother many people, but at this point there's nothing I want more than to get rid of this awful BB.

[aues]

Everybody needs a test person.
Surely you'll find this embarrassing, but if you have a brother or sister or a partner - this is their job.
Next: You need to talk openly about your problem(s) in front of doctors (it might be hard at the denist because of people who assist the dentist etc.).
Collect all test results. Ask for xray copies etc.
Post all you stuff anonymized in your own thread on this board.

Think of every possibility. Try everything that has helped someone. Try all the scientific-acknowledged solutions first! Read every medical post on this board - don't take too much notice of the "my life is shit" parts of the posts. They are justified, but in masses they won't make you happy or solve your problem.
Write down what you want to test.

Start with visiting dentists, then visit your GP/ENT. If they are clueless you might want to visit other specialists.

btw: My ENT once said "I'd like to help you, but I have done all I know and don't know what to do next." Two years later she helped me solving my problem. This board also helped me tremendously. As well as knowledge from Australia, that hasn't reached Germany yet.

[hali_grl]

HT
I'm glad you can feel me on this one.I was just thinking the other day how I took simple things like going to the grocery store or talking on my cell phone in public for granted. Just two years ago I was grocery shopping without anxiety and talking on my cell phone loudly while waiting in lines at shopping centers. I remember the first time I found out I was room filling. Sometimes I wish I didn't realize I was so chronic, i guess ignorance is bliss.

Coco
I'm so sorry about this affecting you the greater part of your life. I couldn't even imagine the nightmare this must have been for you. It's hard for a world full of adults to not make comments about our odor, so I can imagine the cruelty of kids or teenagers. Your story really saddens me and touches my heart. Aues has giving really good advice for trying to find a solution. Honestly this forum has helped me alot too with opening up and communicating freely without having to worry about my breath.

Aues
I believe tried almost every scientific meausre there is to try that's why Im trying to expand and think out side the box because I personally think the cure is going to be homeostatic. MEBO now is researching a homeostatis treatment for bb and bo.

[HigherThoughts]

aues I would love to have a test person. Sadly that is not possible for me. The person I could rely on most was my sister. She used to have no problem telling me if my breath smelled bad before I got this chronic halitosis problem. Now even she lies to me and tells me she doesn't smell anything. Not my parents, not my friends. Everyone lies to me.

At first I thought I was going insane and it felt like some crazy conspiracy where not one single person in my life could tell me honestly.I have absolutely no idea how every single person in my life responds the same way when I tried to bring up my bad breath problem. Even when I went to see an ENT he lied to me and gave me bs about his nose isn't good so he can't smell anything. I can't go to doctors because I know they will all lie about this problem even though this problem is the reason I need to see them. So if everyone denies this problem exists then how can I get help? I can only rely on myself and constantly do research online, but I will have no way to tell if something is improving my situation. I can only gauge by peoples reactions, but so far everyday it has been the same. Everyone can smell me from quite a distance all the time.

[rikki]

I agree with Hali girl 100% about the fact that we can't sit around and wait for researches to find our cure. Although MEBO research sounds promising, it could take a lifetime to figure out and I for one don't have that long. Thats why this forum is so important. I will continue looking and trying everything for myself until I find my solution. For me, the worst thing is to see everything I could be doing like going for cocktails with friends or taking a yoga class (but no way am I going to take deep breaths and exhale around other people). I just use these things as motivation to keep looking.

[jess]

I can totally relate to everything you guys are saying in this thread. I became aware of my bb when I was 17 years old and now I'm 29; looking back I think it really started 1 to 3 years before that. I've tried A LOT of things ( and till this day I continue to try few new things trying to completely get rid of this condition) and many of them has help me control the bb condition. I know probably we all here are desperate and want to try any and everything hoping to get a cure; but please be very careful and do some research on the products you want to try (and I'm taking my own advice too). I'm saying this because- as some of you might remember- I tried mms and I regret that I had ever taken it. I believe it is the cause of some bad changes I've seen in my skin. So from my personal experience with it I would advise to stay away from it. I know things are bad now for us but again be careful with what we put in our bodies.

[aues]

aues I would love to have a test person. Sadly that is not possible for me. The person I could rely on most was my sister. She used to have no problem telling me if my breath smelled bad before I got this chronic halitosis problem. Now even she lies to me and tells me she doesn't smell anything. Not my parents, not my friends. Everyone lies to me.

At first I thought I was going insane and it felt like some crazy conspiracy where not one single person in my life could tell me honestly.I have absolutely no idea how every single person in my life responds the same way when I tried to bring up my bad breath problem. Even when I went to see an ENT he lied to me and gave me bs about his nose isn't good so he can't smell anything. I can't go to doctors because I know they will all lie about this problem even though this problem is the reason I need to see them. So if everyone denies this problem exists then how can I get help? I can only rely on myself and constantly do research online, but I will have no way to tell if something is improving my situation. I can only gauge by peoples reactions, but so far everyday it has been the same. Everyone can smell me from quite a distance all the time.

Nearly all doctors don't seem to think that it's their job to smell the breath of their patients.
If you go to a doctor and tell him about your problem he/she might ask you whether the bad breath has been confirmed by someone else. And if you can't answer this question honestly with a yes you are in a quite bad position. Because in this case your doctor quite likely won't take your words seriously and will say some shit like "I can't smell anything" or "some smell is normal" or sth like that.

The thing that is wrong here is either your non-existing problem, your sister or the relation between your sister an you.

You need to think about the relation between your and your sister. And then you should talk again about this with your sister. Just say that this bad breath thing is a really pressing and burdening issue for you and that you think that if she as your sister is interested in your well-being she has an obligation to help you. And helping you in this situation means that she has to say the truth, regardless whether or not she senses your breath as bad or as good smelling.

In the interest of an intact relationship between you and your sister you should go for this.
In case after the talk you still think she is lying nonetheless you should talk about this with someone else.

You need confirmation by a trustworthy person. From this point on you can go to every doctor without being regarded as a psycho case.

For me this was the starting point of solving my problem. It actually still took two years, but I'm bad breath free now and expect to stay bad breath free for good.

And start with scientific-acknowledged solutions. You might find that sth like homoeopathy helps a bit, but in the end sth like getting your wisdom teeth or tonsils out might cures you by 100% even if your doctors say that your tonsils appear to be not that bad or they don't see a possible connection between wisdom teeth and bb. There are that many possible reasons. Don't say you tried everything if you haven't at least skimmed about the majority of the posts of this board. And there are other bad breath boards which might be worth to read - and in case you understand a foreign language the information pool which very likely also contains your solution widens further.
If you have done all this you should book a flight to Istanbul and get an appointment for Dr. Aydin Murat. If you live in a first world country and are desperate to find your solution the money for the flight and so on shouldn't really be an unsolvable problem.