Does it not all originate with the tongue?
Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:32 am
I am new to this forum, not new to the struggle. I was 14 when I started with halitosis, am now 34. Never been able to have a relationship. BB has been the bane of my life. There, now my sob story is out of the way.
I have always known that my BB has been a problem with my tongue. Am I wrong to assume that this is the case with most everyone who suffers from BB? Even tonsil stones originate from the tongue, in my opinion. The idea that BB comes from the gut or an infection in the lungs or sinuses is a very difficult pill for me to swallow. I understand that there could be very very very rare exeptions. However, I think almost all chronic halitosis, the kind that cannot be "cured" by the "specialists," originates at the tongue--an imbalance in the flora of the tissue of the tongue occurs and it just gets worse and worse and worse, even spreading to other parts of the body.
I wish people could post pictures of their tongue on here. I think it would be very revealing and very helpful as a community effort. A healthy tongue, in my opinion, is dark pink and smooth all the way back, like a baby's tongue. I have known people with mild (but constant) halitosis that have been more or less cured from a two week course of the specialist products, like Katz's. But these were people that had healthy tongues to start, maybe just a tiny bit of growth on the back of the tongue. I would have given anything when I was 14 or 15 to have been in that category. I used to buy that stuff by the box load, and then hide it so nobody could see it.
When I was 12 or 13 I started to get bald spots (like little ulcers) on my tongue, the start of geographic tongue. I think that was the very first sign that things were starting to go wrong. Over the years things got worse and worse and I tried every product out there. Nothing helped. My tongue eventually got to the "hairy tongue" state which was about as bad as it gets. I have always been quite certain that the cause has been the wrong kind of bacteria thriving on my tongue, in the tissue, in a way that my body could not get rid of it. This somehow prevents the papillae from shedding and just creates a forest for foul smelling bacteria to thrive.
I have often thought that there must be some underlying condition with people like me that allows the tongue to be destroyed like that. Something like a weak immune system, or a weak liver, or what not. However, it does no good to go down those rabbit holes. Time and time again I've realized I have to fight the problem with my tongue at the source--my tongue.
I could write and talk for weeks on this subject, and I hope to contribute as much as I can on this forum. However, I don't want to make this post too terrible long. Since nobody could ever help me (especially doctors), I have been my own guinea pig for the last 20 years. I am going to list the things I have tried that did no good (as close to in order as I can), in hopes that nobody will waste their time or health with them:
-OTC mouthwashes--only dry out mouth
-Every one of the "Cure" products, like Katz's--dry out mouth
-Tongue Scrapers--only clean the very surface of tongue
-Rubbing Alcohol--Dry out mouth, kill everything
-Hydrogen Peroxide--Dry out mouth, kill everything
-Surgery--On deviated septum to stop Post Nasal Drip (which I didn't have its just the condition of the tongue that tricks people into thinking they do have PND), also when I learned to really not trust doctors; I think some PND can be aggravated by the "infection" on the tongue, but its an effect, not a cause; You also hear of people having their tonsils removed to fix BB to no avail
-Diet--Some extreme diets, like no carb diets, seem to help because they force the natural flora in the body to kind of reset, but I found the effects to always be very minimal temporary and got tired of feeling sick from extreme diets
-All natural (doing nothing with the tongue)--trying to pretend the problem away was foolish
-Heavy alcohol drinking--killed some bacteria but bad for many reasons and made problem worse
-Antibiotics--most scripted antibiotics help because they kill off the bacteria in the mouth, but just temporarily. And they are terrible in the sense that they kill off all the bacteria, good and bad, sometimes leaving the bad to gain more of an upper hand
-Acids, like salicylic acid--They are actually decent at killing micro stuff but only for a very short period before making things worse, they also destroy teeth
-Bleach--Something I dearly regret trying. Diluted its good at killing stuff but it doesn't heal tissue it destroys it. It made my problem worse and don't ever try it!!!
-TCA Peel (trichloroacetic acid)--much different from salicylic acid type stuff, TCA peel is a chemical burn (used in dermatology) that kills the outer layers of tissue and just peels off a day or two later; I applied this to my tongue and a couple days later peeled off a dead white layer of tissue to reveal a healthy looking baby smooth tongue (for the first time in 15 years). Unfortunately, my unhealthy tongue grew back within a few days and I was crushed; later on I tried this method once a week for a couple months and it did no good, just caused pain, my unhealthy tongue always returned. Again I am writing these things so that nobody else will risk their health trying something that WONT WORK!
Recently I have found a few things that are as close to a cure as can be for me, but it will take more posts to describe responsibly. And before I spill my guts too much I guess I would appreciate some feedback from this community on my assumption that most chronic halitosis sufferers are really victims of an unhealthy tongue. Fix the tongue, fix the halitosis. Please let me know what you think!
I have always known that my BB has been a problem with my tongue. Am I wrong to assume that this is the case with most everyone who suffers from BB? Even tonsil stones originate from the tongue, in my opinion. The idea that BB comes from the gut or an infection in the lungs or sinuses is a very difficult pill for me to swallow. I understand that there could be very very very rare exeptions. However, I think almost all chronic halitosis, the kind that cannot be "cured" by the "specialists," originates at the tongue--an imbalance in the flora of the tissue of the tongue occurs and it just gets worse and worse and worse, even spreading to other parts of the body.
I wish people could post pictures of their tongue on here. I think it would be very revealing and very helpful as a community effort. A healthy tongue, in my opinion, is dark pink and smooth all the way back, like a baby's tongue. I have known people with mild (but constant) halitosis that have been more or less cured from a two week course of the specialist products, like Katz's. But these were people that had healthy tongues to start, maybe just a tiny bit of growth on the back of the tongue. I would have given anything when I was 14 or 15 to have been in that category. I used to buy that stuff by the box load, and then hide it so nobody could see it.
When I was 12 or 13 I started to get bald spots (like little ulcers) on my tongue, the start of geographic tongue. I think that was the very first sign that things were starting to go wrong. Over the years things got worse and worse and I tried every product out there. Nothing helped. My tongue eventually got to the "hairy tongue" state which was about as bad as it gets. I have always been quite certain that the cause has been the wrong kind of bacteria thriving on my tongue, in the tissue, in a way that my body could not get rid of it. This somehow prevents the papillae from shedding and just creates a forest for foul smelling bacteria to thrive.
I have often thought that there must be some underlying condition with people like me that allows the tongue to be destroyed like that. Something like a weak immune system, or a weak liver, or what not. However, it does no good to go down those rabbit holes. Time and time again I've realized I have to fight the problem with my tongue at the source--my tongue.
I could write and talk for weeks on this subject, and I hope to contribute as much as I can on this forum. However, I don't want to make this post too terrible long. Since nobody could ever help me (especially doctors), I have been my own guinea pig for the last 20 years. I am going to list the things I have tried that did no good (as close to in order as I can), in hopes that nobody will waste their time or health with them:
-OTC mouthwashes--only dry out mouth
-Every one of the "Cure" products, like Katz's--dry out mouth
-Tongue Scrapers--only clean the very surface of tongue
-Rubbing Alcohol--Dry out mouth, kill everything
-Hydrogen Peroxide--Dry out mouth, kill everything
-Surgery--On deviated septum to stop Post Nasal Drip (which I didn't have its just the condition of the tongue that tricks people into thinking they do have PND), also when I learned to really not trust doctors; I think some PND can be aggravated by the "infection" on the tongue, but its an effect, not a cause; You also hear of people having their tonsils removed to fix BB to no avail
-Diet--Some extreme diets, like no carb diets, seem to help because they force the natural flora in the body to kind of reset, but I found the effects to always be very minimal temporary and got tired of feeling sick from extreme diets
-All natural (doing nothing with the tongue)--trying to pretend the problem away was foolish
-Heavy alcohol drinking--killed some bacteria but bad for many reasons and made problem worse
-Antibiotics--most scripted antibiotics help because they kill off the bacteria in the mouth, but just temporarily. And they are terrible in the sense that they kill off all the bacteria, good and bad, sometimes leaving the bad to gain more of an upper hand
-Acids, like salicylic acid--They are actually decent at killing micro stuff but only for a very short period before making things worse, they also destroy teeth
-Bleach--Something I dearly regret trying. Diluted its good at killing stuff but it doesn't heal tissue it destroys it. It made my problem worse and don't ever try it!!!
-TCA Peel (trichloroacetic acid)--much different from salicylic acid type stuff, TCA peel is a chemical burn (used in dermatology) that kills the outer layers of tissue and just peels off a day or two later; I applied this to my tongue and a couple days later peeled off a dead white layer of tissue to reveal a healthy looking baby smooth tongue (for the first time in 15 years). Unfortunately, my unhealthy tongue grew back within a few days and I was crushed; later on I tried this method once a week for a couple months and it did no good, just caused pain, my unhealthy tongue always returned. Again I am writing these things so that nobody else will risk their health trying something that WONT WORK!
Recently I have found a few things that are as close to a cure as can be for me, but it will take more posts to describe responsibly. And before I spill my guts too much I guess I would appreciate some feedback from this community on my assumption that most chronic halitosis sufferers are really victims of an unhealthy tongue. Fix the tongue, fix the halitosis. Please let me know what you think!