Bad Breath Bonanza

ANTVGM64

Yikes, two of these threads in one day!

Anyway, I am SUPER paranoid about my breath. I'm also in a situation where I am now currently dealing with people face-to-face all the time. My teeth aren't the best, either, and I am making inroads to seeing the dentist, but a combination of 1) Finances and 2) Sheer terror, have made that road a little tougher to go down than I would like. My sister has said she thinks I may have halatosis possibly.

In the meantime, are there any sure-fire ways to ensure my breath isn't god-awful? A way to see how my breath smells on my own? Special gum, a cool kind of tooth paste? Braces that elicit a small peppermift waft every time I burp?

knitdan

To check your own breath, cup a hand in front of your mouth and exhale into it, then smell.

In addition to brushing your teeth thoroughly, make sure to floss regularly. If you've got bits of food stuck in there they will cause a lot of bad breath.

After all that, rinse out your mouth with water. Mouthwash just dries out your mouth.

ceres

Alternatively, rinse your mouth with a mix of water and baking soda. You can put some peppermint oil in there if you're missing the mint, but you don't need much of it.

Rayze

Brush your tongue. You wouldn't think bad breath could originate from there but it does. Tonsil stones can also cause bad breath so check back there with a flashlight from time to time (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillolith)

Otherwise, keep some Tic Tacs on hand. They won't last long but it's a quick fix

JebusUD

Brushing, flossing. Mouthwash. Then Drinking water so your mouth doesn't get dry.

Brush and floss after every meal, and maybe even snacks.

JebusUD

Oh, and I like ACT mouthwash and crest pro health the best. Everything feels the freshest with those.

Until you get your dental work done you are just doing damage control. Make that a priority

ihmmy

tongue brushing and flossing make a huuuge difference in breath. You could also bring a thing of floss and/or a mini if mouthwash to work to freshen up after lunch

Jasconius

routine dental cleaning, mouthwash every day for a month

solves everything

and yeah, floss and tongue brushing helps a lot too, especially if you're starting from Square 1

joshofalltrades

Rayze wrote: »

Brush your tongue. You wouldn't think bad breath could originate from there but it does. Tonsil stones can also cause bad breath so check back there with a flashlight from time to time (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillolith)

Otherwise, keep some Tic Tacs on hand. They won't last long but it's a quick fix

Seconding the tonsil stone thing. Look into it, because even if you're brushing and flossing regularly these assholes will still make your breath absolutely horrible.

Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of them forever is to get your tonsils taken out, but if you don't have a horrible gag reflex like I do you can just reach back there (gently) with a q-tip and see if you can squeeze them out.

They really do smell like ass.

MagicToaster

Floss
Brush
Use a tongue brush/scraper
Use mouthwash (please read the instructions, it's unbelievable the amount of people that don't use it properly).

If you do these things after meals or 3 times a day you'll never have bad breath. It takes 3 minutes.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Brush the whole inside of your mouth. Teeth, gums, tongue, roof, even give the inside of your cheeks a quick polish.

TychoCelchuuu

Vodka, all the time. Bonus: you get to drink a lot of vodka.

Zenitram

Lots of good advice in here. My contribution:

-Get a teeth cleaning, it's cheap enough you it makes a huge difference, especially if you haven't had one in a while.
-Brush your tongue and roof of your mouth as well as your teeth.
-Stay hydrated
-Sugary foods and drinks make your breath bad very quickly, even with perfect teeth and 2x-a-day brushing.
-Floss regularly, duh. I also use mouthwash after brushing.
-Trident gum is a good route to go after a meal, but not necessary.

Cog

If you have any dental insurance worth a shit, you should get at least a couple cleanings a year free of charge.

This will be of more immediate help than anything you can do at home, but you have to keep up your self maintained hygiene, or it's all for naught.

I used to have really fucking awful gums & breath, and one thing I somehow managed to go 30 years without knowing was that you brush at an angle, and not just flat against the sides of your teeth, otherwise you're not clearing out all the shit that gets trapped along your gumline. This made a huuuuuge difference to me. Yeah, small thing but, fuck, I never knew.

alltheolive

If you find that you neglect flossing, despite good intentions, two things:

1) Buy like 10 things of floss (different kinds if you don't know what kind you like; there is precisely one variety that I can stand) and put them everywhere- desk at work, backpack, bedside table, etc, so when you remember you don't put it off.

2) Floss and then smell the floss. I find that if I floss regularly, it smells like floss; if I don't, it smells of horrors. That's motivational.

Julius

knitdan wrote: »

After all that, rinse out your mouth with water. Mouthwash just dries out your mouth.

That only applies to mouthwash with alcohol. Get the non alcohol kind. It is a good addition.

JebusUD

I like the ribbon floss. Glide pro health is my favorite.

Zenitram

The first time I ever used non-alcoholic mouthwash was when I was in basic training. I hadn't had a teeth cleaning for a decade and the mouthwash stained my teeth something fierce. So beware, it could happen to you if you have plaque buildup.

And I second the Glide ribbon floss, it's spendy but worth it.

CelestialBadger

Zenitram wrote: »

And I second the Glide ribbon floss, it's spendy but worth it.

I can't use anything else, it gets stuck in my teeth.

Soggybiscuit

I don't know if you drink coffee or not, but maybe cut back a bit (or a bunch) if you expect a lot of face to face time. Coffee is the #2 bad breath maker right behind chewing tobacco/snuff IMO.