Breath testing methods

[FedUp]

Do you guys have any breath testing methods?

I find one that works (I think) is flapping your cheeks in and out with your hands while exhaling. i can usually smell a musty breath smell.

are their any proven methods to detect breath?

[halitosisux]

Gas chromatography and noses are the only proven ways so far to get some idea of whether your breath smells or not. The least reliable method is to look for reactions.

Try cupping one hand over your nose and then breathing in through your nose while you position the bottom of your hand so that it sucks the air out of your mouth. Takes a bit of manouvering until you start to feel the air swirling around in your mouth and you begin to smell something.

If you do this while holding out your tongue you'll also be able to get a good idea of what your tongue smells like. The smell worsens as everything starts to dry out.

I don't know whether this can indicate whether or not you have bad breath though. But when my breath was really bad, the smell from this method was awful, and it correlated with having bad odour from rubbing my finger on the back of my tongue and smelling that. It also correlated with being reliably told I don't have bad breath and not being able to smell anything bad when I use this method of smelling my mouth. So, I would guess this is a fairly reliable way to test for type-1 BB.

I'd still say that the most reliable way to test for type-1 BB is to rub a finger on the back of the tongue. If there's no odour then it's unlikely that you have type-1 BB (unless you have a rotten tooth or something really obvious like that). If there is strong odour on your finger, then it's very likely that you do have BB.

As for other types of BB, I don't think there's any reliable way to self-determine. Being a room-filler does not necessarily mean the odour is from your breath - it's more likely to be from your body because if it's from your breath you'll have become habituated and you won't be able to smell it - exactly why people with TMAU can't smell their breath odour, but they can usually smell their body odour.

[Brad123]

Checking the back of the tongue for odor is the best free method of checking for bad breath.