Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

I've known for a while that my mouth is not the direct cause -- no dental problems whenever I go into the dentist.
But it must be connected to my mucus issues, which the bacteria will feed on and create an overall bacteria issue right?
If my tongue has a coating there has to be an issue with bacteria in some way. Or so I assumed.

My bristle results came back only to say there's literally nothing wrong.
My level of bacterias likely to cause halitosis: low
My level of bacterias likely to cause gun inflammation: low
Tooth decay: not detected.

How on earth is this even POSSIBLE?

It did say I have low diversity and low nitrate.

Does anyone know if low nitrate in saliva can be connected? I can't find anything.
How do I increase diversity? And how do I have no bacteria that signal bad breath when I smell and taste disgusting everyday?
I'd understand more if I thought it was about a deeper issue but its clearly connected to my mucus and tongue coating.

It may be possible that your sample was not taken correctly. Are you sure you followed all the steps correctly? I just sent my test in and Im scared something similar like this will happen to me.
On the plus side, you can take these results to your doctor and these results can help eliminate a lot of possibilities at to what actually IS causing the BB!

I definitely followed all the instructions in terms of not eating or drinking before and taking the correct amount. I did decide to collect the sample at night time instead of in the morning. I figured everyone has some bad breath in the morning, I wanted my results to be accurate to how my breath is after a normal day.

And yes that is true, proves to doctors its not an oral issue. I have an ENT appointment this week, I'll definitely mention it.

How did the ENT appointment go? Did they have any notes regarding your Bristle results? I am very anxious for mine. Idk I was kind of hoping that the test would be my big AHA moment where I can know exactly what the issue is.

They did ct scan of my sinuses and she looked in then with a nasal endoscopy. She said she didn’t see anything that would cause my symptoms. She did give me oral anti fungal lozenges. Honestly, i did feel like they were helping but as soon as I stopped taking it, it came back. She said sometimes people can feel that way about anti fungals and anti biotics but she did a mouth swab to test for fungus/candida and other pathogen. She said it came back all clear. Basically no one can give me any answers to sum it all up...