Bad Breath: How to Know and Fix It

No one will tell you. That is both the courtesy and the problem.

The human nose adapts to persistent smells, which means that the man most affected by his own breath is, by a cruel symmetry, the man least likely to detect it. Your friends will not mention it. Your colleagues will simply stand slightly further away, and you will interpret this as a preference for personal space, which it is not.

There is a simple test. Lick the inside of your wrist (not the back of your hand, but the inside of the wrist, where the skin is thinner), wait ten seconds, and smell it. What you detect is approximately what others experience at conversational distance, and if the result is disagreeable, you have your answer.

The causes are, in most cases, entirely manageable. The tongue is the primary offender, harbouring bacteria in quantities that would alarm you if you thought about it, which I suggest you do not. Brush your tongue every time you brush your teeth; a tongue scraper is better still, costs less than a cup of coffee, and makes a difference so immediate that you will wonder how you tolerated the alternative.

Floss every day. The debris that accumulates between your teeth is, to speak plainly, rotting. There is no gentler way to phrase this, nor would a gentler phrasing serve the purpose. It is decomposing organic matter wedged into gaps in your mouth, and it smells exactly as you would expect decomposing organic matter to smell. Floss removes it; mouthwash does not reach it, and brushing does not reach it. Floss.

Drink water throughout the day, for a dry mouth is a breeding ground. Coffee and alcohol both contribute to the problem, not because of their flavour, but because they dry the mouth and reduce saliva, which is your body’s own cleaning mechanism and one of the few systems working in your favour without any effort on your part.

If the problem persists despite all of this, see a dentist. Persistent bad breath can indicate gum disease or a cavity, both of which are medical matters rather than matters of willpower, and there is no shame in either. There is only shame in knowing and doing nothing.