Body Odor & Super Bad Breath

[notmanons]

Ok I went to the doctors yesterday.
She asked me several questions, checked my blood pressure, my stomach and stuff, I have very good dental hygiene. She said my gums where quite inflamed or something like that, it could be the speed i eat my food and it gets stuck and causes a smell, eating regularly...omg i think im going to die.
Arghhh what can I do?!?!?!

 

[Anastasia]

Ok I went to the doctors yesterday.
She asked me several questions, checked my blood pressure, my stomach and stuff, I have very good dental hygiene. She said my gums where quite inflamed or something like that, it could be the speed i eat my food and it gets stuck and causes a smell, eating regularly...omg i think im going to die.
Arghhh what can I do?!?!?!

I have a problem with inflamed gums - sometimes they start spontaneously bleeding, when I'm really run down. It relates to an underlying auto-immune disease. Are you otherwise healthy?

One thing that REALLY works for me (and totally saved me after I had my impacted wisdom teeth out, and couldn't brush/floss/anything for almost a week), is a plant extract called "Phytodent". When I googled it just now it comes up with a bunch of vet sites, but I got mine at the local healthfood store, and it was advertised for humans My brand is made by Herbal Alchemist and was about $12 - mix the recommended amount of drops in a small amount of water, and use as a mouthwash (don't swallow it!) 1-3 times a day. Looking at the bottle now...it contains a blend of witch hazel, spilanthes, myrrh, calendula, goldenseal, thyme, peppermint, and cinnamon.

I'd also recommend flossing your tongue as well as your teeth, and don't use mouthwash or mints that contain sugar. That can breed bad bacteria, and make the problem worse in the long run. Stick with plain old original listerine.

Plain, unsweetened yogurt is very helpful for bad breath, with the good bacteria it contains, and for soothing inflamed gums. Many doctors recommend it now. http://www.healthypages.net/newspage.asp?newsid=4944

Also make sure you're drinking enough water throughout the day, and eating regularly. I know my breath stinks when I fast.

 

[BabyJ]

I've actually had to do this at one point in a friendship I have with someone. We are a very tight group of friends and a few people in the group started to noticed body odor and bad breath from one of the group. Everyone knew that I was the closest to the girl so they asked me to do the deed.

At first I tried some of the methods that you guys here have mentioned. I would bring up a great new deodorant that I tried and really worked or find another way to bring it up without straight out saying "hey people don't think you smell so fresh!" It didn't work. The friend didn't really take the hint.

Next step: A few of the girls from the group, the ones closest to her, had dinner at my house and while having drinks after dinner we just kind of brought it up. I was laughing and I explained to her that I wasn't laughing because it was funny but that I was laughing because I was very nervous. Although she is my best friend its really hard to tell someone that. I would rather tell a stranger. I brought up a couple of times where it was noticed that she had bad breathe or strong body odor and I even told her that it had taken me a while to say it straight out because I didn't know HOW. She told us that she would go see a doctor and figure it out. She would smell her body odor but didn't think that anyone else could.

The next morning (she spent the night) she told me over coffee that although it was slightly embarassing she really appericated the fact that it was brought up and she was informed of the problem.

YOU may feel uncomfortable telling someone they have this problem but imagine how embarassed they'd feel if everytime they went out their friends wouldn't sit with them or would talk about B.O. behind their backs?

 

[Bel]

You can't do anything but explicitly tell them, but tell them one-on-one. Extremely important. It's so much more embarassing if you've got a crowd of people around.