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Halitosis V. Halitophobia

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DontBreath
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Halitosis V. Halitophobia

Post by DontBreath »

I know I suffer from halitosis and halitophobia. Of the two, halitophobia has had a much more negative impact on my life. It's the constant fear, and shame that I'm rotten from the inside out. It hovers over my life like a storm cloud.

My story is similar enough to many others I've read on here. I was told I had bad breath for the first time in elementary school, and I've been told many times since then. I'm 35 now. I've been told a couple times by concerned family that I should "go to the dentist," and friends have made comments when breath mint commercials or whatever are on TV. I can self test using a cotton swab on the back of my tongue. It smells pretty bad (fecal I guess), so I do know it's not all in my imagination, but as most of you will understand, one of the hardest things for me is that I don't know the intensity or the frequency of it. I have had some reactions in my life some of them for sure real (girl putting mint on my desk in college), and some who knows (people changing seats on bus when seat opens). At the same time. It can't be as bad as I've been lead to believe it is. I've dated plenty of women. I'm not ostracized at work, and people do invite me to travel in vehicles or go to the movies with them.

My diet is quite good, and for all appearances, I'm quite healthy with a nice smile. I exercise. I have good dental hygiene. I use a neti pot, but I just can't stand the fact that something I have no control over is ruining my life.

I strongly believe that the cause has to do with a microbial imbalance in the mouth/sinuses/gut, but I've done everything I can to correct them through diet. No matter what I do, I have that turd smell coming from the back of my tongue.

I'm starting to wonder if it's worth continuing to look for cures. You guys are like me, you've been doing everything you can for years to put an end to this curse, and it seems like most of you are still in the same boat. Could acceptance be the answer? Bad breath has certainly negatively impacted my life. I'm sure it's affected my in ways I don't even know, but halitophobia affects my every waking hour even when I'm by myself. I'm just so sick of worrying about this all the time, and I just can't believe that there's not some simple cure out there. Breathing is more important than food or water or sex, but it has caused me thousands of hours of anguish, and negatively affected my personality


halitosisux
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Post by halitosisux »

I can empathise with you. It's not necessarily the BB that's the problem, it's the way it makes us feel when we've become aware of it. It's confidence shattering. This is what others then sense more than the bad breath. I come across plenty of people with BB where I work, most appear completely oblivious to their "problem" and live very happy and successful lives.

If your tongue appears to be the only source of your odour, there are very effective ways you can manage this.
StinkBomb
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Post by StinkBomb »

We really need an accurate way to determine if our breath stinks, otherwise we are doomed from the start. Trying to gauge our breath based on peoples reactions is "fools gold". The most reliable method for breath detection is the old fashion way of having a human smell your breath and give you an assessment. Unfortunately, this is difficult to accomplish for many reasons. I envy those who have someone in there lives who can provide honest feedback.

I've tried some of the cheap "breath tester" devices on the market, but they all seem to be crap. Recently I came across a product called "Breathometer Mint". It appears to still be in development but seems to be promising. It's a bluetooth device that connects to your smartphone. I will wait to see the reviews and how reliable it turns out to be. A reliable product like this would be a game changer in my quest to find a cure.

Here is the link:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brea ... -hydration#/
Atrial
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Post by Atrial »

Atrial
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Post by Atrial »

DontBreath
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Post by DontBreath »

halitosisux wrote:
If your tongue appears to be the only source of your odour, there are very effective ways you can manage this.
I'm not sure if it's the only source, but it does appear to be a source. What are some of the ways to effectively manage this? I have good dental hygiene, use a tongue scraper. Sometimes I'll use a mouthwash like Therabreath or Smart Mouth. I take probiotics and eat a lot of probiotic food. What are some good things to do beyond this?

One of my challenges is making choices about things like coffee and booze. I love coffee and booze but I don't know if I should drink them or not. If I knew for sure there was a direct causation, I could easily quit anything, but I always go back and forth. Because I've gone months being completely clean, and I'm not sure if it even had a positive impact.
DontBreath
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Post by DontBreath »

I worked up enough courage to ask my girlfriend of a few months if my breath bothered her. She told me that she's never noticed my breath. I'm trying to sort out what all this means for myself, and for everyone else. Her response leaves me with three options: 1. She could be lying to me. 2. My bb can only be smelled by some people 3. I have bouts of halitosis for unknown reasons.

I know for a fact that I have suffered from bb. I've been told outright a couple dozen times throughout the course of my life, and many other times people have made comments that may or may not have been directed at my breath. I also know that the whole time I've been with her (3 months), I've had all the symptoms. My tongue stinks if I scrape it and smell it. I can smell my own breath when I breathe out my nose. It smells kind of tonsil stony. I've noticed some reactions (nose rubbing), and a bitter metallic taste in my mouth. I can say that nobody has made any direct comments during this time. I really don't know what all this means, or how it can help anyone else (or me for that matter).

I don't think she's lying. She's kissing me all the time, and has never seemed grossed out, but I think I would've been more satisfied with an answer like "sometimes in the morning," or "after you've been drinking all night" I guess it's possible that my breath is always gross to some people, and others can't smell it, because of their microbiome, but my guess would be option number 3. I'm prone to bouts of halitosis for unknown reasons, and there's really no way to know why or when it strikes.

I don't know if I'm doing anything special to keep it at bay. I do maintain good hygiene. I brush and floss and scrape twice a day (sometimes 3, but never more), and I use a non-alcohol mouthwash. I switch it up with Therabreath, smartmouth, or organic tea tree oil rinses. I eat a vegetable focused paleo diet where I avoid most flours and sugars, but I'm not super strict about it. I love beer and pizza, and some days, I'm just gonna go for it. I DO drink water or iced tea/herbal tea constantly throughout the day. I love coffee, but I consume it more as a treat than as my regular beverage of choice. I love booze too, but I generally try to go for the hard stuff on ice rather than beer or mixed drinks. I also do smoke ganja semi-regularly. One possible thing that helps me is exercise. I wonder if the heavy breathing during exercise helps expel some of the stagnant air. I also do cleansing breaths, especially when I start to get real paranoid about bb.

I have to admit this brings me some relief, but not quite as much as I had hoped for. I'm still quite paranoid about my breath, and am worried that it could come back. She said she would tell me if it gets bad. Which is good, because it might help me isolate a cause. It just makes me wonder how many of us are out there like me, who might be prone to bad breath sometimes, but we've conditioned ourselves to think we have it 100% of the time? I surely don't know, but I do know I've met plenty of people with bad breath, and none of them always have bad breath. Some people are more prone than others, and it's worse than others, but I have never in my life met someone who always has bad breath.

Anyway, I just wanted to share, because I've been tortured by this breath thing for over 20 years, and it's gotten increasingly worse, but I can say that what's in my head has hurt me much worse than what's coming out of my mouth. I know how difficult life is when you feel guilty just for breathing. I'm hoping this conversation with my girlfriend brings me some relief, and I hope it might give some of you hope too, who have been smelling your tongue and your own breath and people tell you sometimes your breath is bad, that it's probably not as bad as you've been lead to believe. People just don't understand the impact their comments can have on us.
halitosisux
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Post by halitosisux »

Have you ever asked your girlfriend if your breath smells in the morning?

About methods to reduce your tongue odour, please read my thread on irrigation using antibacterials - the section on tongue cleaning. Chlorhexidine is very effective if you can obtain it where you live.
DontBreath
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Post by DontBreath »

halitosisux wrote:Have you ever asked your girlfriend if your breath smells in the morning?

About methods to reduce your tongue odour, please read my thread on irrigation using antibacterials - the section on tongue cleaning. Chlorhexidine is very effective if you can obtain it where you live.
I didn't ask her specifically about the morning. I asked her generally, but she's spent plenty of mornings with me, and she'll get right up close to me, and I'm terrified. I do keep a liter of water by the bed, so I do take a great big swig of water. She said she has NEVER noticed my breath.

My point isn't that I'm trying to get rid of tongue odor, although I might want to. My point is that despite having confirmed tongue odor, I've had a report that I've had no detectable bad breath during that period, and I think that's significant, because I was driving myself insane testing my tongue odor all the time, because it comes back shortly after my hygiene routine.
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