I've been suffering from bad breath for around 1 year now, and it's starting to take over my life and dominate my everyday events. I try to avoid going out as much as possible and as I'm a teenager it's making me very depressed.
I live in the UK and have been getting treatment for different parts of my body that the GP thinks is causing the problem; fungilin for the mouth which didn't work, penicillin & metronidazole for the gut which worked for the duration of the course but the bad breath came back days later, corsodyl (mouth wash) which didn't work, domperidone for the stomach which didn't work and the latest which is heliclear, for the gut, which worked yet again but the bad breath has come back, I will explain why...
I used to smoke socially and it got worse, I started to become addictive. I had bad breath before I started smoking but it was just a minor sour/stale smell, now it's more like really burnt toast which is a weird smell. As I became more addicted (never more than 1 or 2 a day though) I noticed some sort of yellow substance was increasing on my tongue, it wasn't at the front of my tongue, it was nearer the back near my throat. The penicilin and heliclear cleared the yellow substance, and the heliclear cleared my bad breath therefore I now know smoking is a catalyst for my bad breath. However last weekend I sat next to a friend who started smoking, therefore the passive smoking must have activated the bad odour again and I realised the yellow substance had grown back on my tongue
I used to chew gum which used to work, however now it doesn't, the smell overrides the gum. Therefore I came to the conclusion the odour was from my gut, and seeing as the fungilin (for mouth) didn't work and the penicilin&metronidazone/heliclear worked, which is for the top of my gut, I knew it was from my gut and probably from the top of my gut as both medicines are mainly from the top of the gut. Even when the heliclear worked I still needed to drink water every 20/30 minutes to get rid of the smell, almost as if the water cleansed the mouth. I don't have dry mouth or eat dodgy foods so that isn't the cause.
My social life has decreased, I went to the oral department of the hospital and she gave me corsodyl, I tried to explain the odour was from my gut therefore the medicine obviously wouldn't work, but she said my teeth were normal and she couldn't do anything else.
This long hard process is starting to take it's toll and I'm eager to lead a normal life again, I'm stuck on ideas on what to do, I have appointments with my GP and he said he will book a time for the gastroenterologist to see my gut, but that will take another 6 months at least to see. Anything I can do in mean time or is there anyone who has had the same problem i.e. yellow tongue etc and know what this could specifically be? Is this down to the acid in my stomach or something else? Why did the smoking make the breath worse?
Many thanks.
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