Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

Hello everyone. Hope you're all doing well.

Instead of telling you my whole story, I'll give you concise bullet points as to not waste your time.

Just to give you guys an idea of the type of BB I have. No matter how much I brush and floss, I still have that distinctive fecal odor coming from the back of my throat. I don't have odor coming from my nose.


1. BB since hit puberty - now 24 years old.

2. Growing up in a third world country, I never really focused much on oral hygiene until I came to the US.

3. A couple of years ago, I got so fed up with the embarrassment that I decided to do something about it.

4. Talked to my GI doctor about possible gastrointestinal causes. Took omeprazole for heartburn/indigestion - NOTHING. Then I did an upper-tract endoscopy where they looked at my throat and stomach - NOTHING. I did a test for H.Pylori - NOTHING.

5. Got a professional deep cleaning at UCSF - the odor in my mouth improved about 2% I'd say, but that same distinctive odor was still present.

6. Went and saw an ENT specialist. Did a nasal endoscopy where they look at your nasal passageways, sinuses, and down your throat. She said she didn't see anything irregular - other than the fact that I have a deviated septum on my ride side.

7. Second visit to ENT a month later, I told her nothing improved. She prescribed me a 10-day Metronidazole regimen.

8. Before starting my 10-day regimen, I started taking very concentrated probiotics (Dr. Ohirra's professional formula) - as was recommended to me by my GI doctor.

10. I started my Metronidazole on a Wednesday evening. That night after I brushed my teeth and flossed, I noticed there was a very slight change in the odor - it was weaker!

11. The next day, I woke up with very little BB. After I brushed my teeth that morning, my mouth was completely odorless. The only taste I had in my mouth was, was a metallic taste that was a side effect of Metronidazole.

12. For those 10 days, I had some of THE BEST days of my life in recent memory. I absolutely LOVED being able to talk to my fiancee, friends, and family face to face. I was finally able to be myself - a happy social person! Even my friends and family noticed the change in my personality.

13. Two weeks ago, I ended my 10-day regimen. By the following day, I could start to feel that same taste and odor coming back ever so slightly.

14. As time went by, that same distinctive odor has been increasing very gradually. Present day - it's still not as strong as it used to be.

15. I emailed my ENT and told her the odor is coming back gradually. She said wait a couple of weeks, and if it goes back to that baseline, then she will put me on a 3-week Metronidazole course.

16. LASTLY, in my last visit with my ENT a couple of weeks ago, she did another nasal endoscopy on me. This time, she went a little farther than before and told me that my adenoids are slightly inflamed.

When I came home that day, I did a little research and apparently, one of the PRIMARY side effects of an inflamed/enlarged adenoids is BAD BREATH.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002615/

My question to you guys is - Have you had your adenoids checked?

Do you still have your tonsils? White tongue?
I'm currently on metro and I'm very much confused. My tongue is still white but that's often a case while on antibiotics it's doesn't change. But when I rub my finger back there, it has no smell as it usually does (awful pungent cheese or smelly socks smell, or some faint shitty smell) but the taste in my mouth is still strange?!? And i still have a feeling that bb is here (maybe because of that strange taste) or is it just a paranoia i don't know.
Considering adenoids. My endoscopy show 40% active adenoid, and when i heard that it pissed me off brutally cause i had tonsilectomy year ago and told my former ent to check adenoids and he told me: No, no don't worry, when you grow adenoids are all gone. And of course when i changed to a new ent he told me different.

One thing I'm not very certain of is whether deeper than normal gum pockets alone can cause BB. Maybe that's one to put to Dr. Aydinmur.

I'm also not certain of whether deep cleaning would ever be performed on perfectly healthy gums? Source, did you have very good reason to have the deep cleaning?

It's so funny when I had the operation the ENT said he didn't see any adenoids. It's so weird how some people have it and others don't?

Did you get your wisdoms checked? Prior to surgery, I did get a fecal odor from the wisdoms.

Sickandtired wrote:Do you still have your tonsils? White tongue?
I'm currently on metro and I'm very much confused. My tongue is still white but that's often a case while on antibiotics it's doesn't change. But when I rub my finger back there, it has no smell as it usually does (awful pungent cheese or smelly socks smell, or some faint shitty smell) but the taste in my mouth is still strange?!? And i still have a feeling that bb is here (maybe because of that strange taste) or is it just a paranoia i don't know.
Considering adenoids. My endoscopy show 40% active adenoid, and when i heard that it pissed me off brutally cause i had tonsilectomy year ago and told my former ent to check adenoids and he told me: No, no don't worry, when you grow adenoids are all gone. And of course when i changed to a new ent he told me different.

I have never had a coated tongue. At the end of the day, my tongue is slightly white/pale yellowish near the back, but I believe that's normal since it is all the food particles and other stuff piling on throughout the day.

I don't know about you, but when I was on Metronidazole, I definitely felt/tasted/smelled the difference. My mouth smelled neutral, no smell at all. However, I did have a slightly metallic taste in my mouth - which I did not mind at all. It was WAY better than rinsing with Chlorhexidine.

I still have my tonsil, all four erupted wisdom teeth (coming out straight) and adenoid.

halitosisux wrote:One thing I'm not very certain of is whether deeper than normal gum pockets alone can cause BB. Maybe that's one to put to Dr. Aydinmur.

I'm also not certain of whether deep cleaning would ever be performed on perfectly healthy gums? Source, did you have very good reason to have the deep cleaning?

That's a good question Halitosisux. The reason why I needed a deep cleaning is because I saw three different dentists and they all said I had too much calcified plaque deposits under my gums. So much that the x-rays showed the calcified plaque was eroding certain parts of a couple of teeth under the gum line - resulting in bone loss.

Born To Suffer wrote:It's so funny when I had the operation the ENT said he didn't see any adenoids. It's so weird how some people have it and others don't?

Did you get your wisdoms checked? Prior to surgery, I did get a fecal odor from the wisdoms.

Hey, I remember you had your tonsils removed? Are you BB free now or did it come back?

ALWAYS get a second opinion. I went to the same ENT - the first time she did a nasal endoscopy, she said my tonsils look just fine and that there wasn't any inflammation anywhere. The second time she did a nasal endoscopy, she went farther than the last time and noticed my adenoid was slightly inflamed.

Just for future reference, always get a second opinion and each time, ask them to look very very closely and leave no area unexplored.

Halitosisux - have you ever had an ENT check your adenoid?

source, thats interesting. I always had the feeling that my BB comes from my adenoids. I have the theory that there are bacteria and they make my tongue white because mucus is flowing down.
I had it checked twice. the one siad i have no adenoid, and the other one said i have one but they are small.
My tonsils are already out.

Do you have any problems breathing through your nose? i have no problems at all, but nevertheless i have the feeling that htey should be taken out.

what do you think whould I do?

@source I vaguely remember my ENT mentioning that he would look at my adenoids when he performed my tonsillectomy, and I remember him saying at some point that they were fine.

Ever since I had my tonsillectomy (mid 90s), I've not seen another stone since. That horrible mothballish odour when breathing outwards through my nose stopped too. If that doesn't go away with a tonsillectomy then adenoids might be the culprit, as, if I remember correctly they can produce tonsilloliths, as too can the lingual tonsils.

I think any area of entrapment, where bacteria, mucus and debris can stagnate, can produce these stones and mothballish/cowshit stench.

@source, tonsillectomy minimized the smell not eliminate it unfortunately.

I ask the ENT SPECIFICALLY to take out adenoids, but he said he did't see anything. But after surgery, I felt so much pain at the roof of my mouth I thought he took them out!!

I don't know if the adenoids are giving me problems or not. Like sometimes I can feel the mucus moving in the roof of my mouth. Doing a nasal rinse seems to clear the mucus a bit.

It seems that people whose bb started at puberty also have a deviated septum, judging from anecdotal evidence on bb forums.

is there a cure for this adenoids thing?

ruch wrote:is there a cure for this adenoids thing?

Sure there is. If they are problem, removing them would solve the problem. But it all depends on source and finding where the problem lies. Sometimes I think ppl are overthinking all this, Yes, we may have more sources of our bb, but then again solution can be so simple but we are missing it cause we are looking for too much and too far that we miss the obvious.

@source, thats interesting. I always had the feeling that my BB comes from my adenoids. I have the theory that there are bacteria and they make my tongue white because mucus is flowing down.
I had it checked twice. the one siad i have no adenoid, and the other one said i have one but they are small.
My tonsils are already out.

Do you have any problems breathing through your nose? i have no problems at all, but nevertheless i have the feeling that htey should be taken out.

what do you think whould I do?