To help me stop being the smelly one

[Stinker12345]

I really need your help, I am the smelly person in the office and despite everything I do I can’t seem to change it.

I think the main thing is my breath. I brush, floss and use mouthwash every day and use a tongue scraper thing. I visit the dentist and hygienist twice a year each. I drink water, avoid onions and garlic. But still, people put their hands over their noses, stand back from me and try not to get close when I talk.

It means I don’t speak up in meetings, it’s really stressful when people come up to my desk unexpectedly. Usually I try and prepare for when I need to speak (gum, mints, mouthwash etc) so I hate being caught by surprise.

Masks have been a godsend but they are no longer a requirement since a few weeks and I can see it more and more when I speak to people.

I am a clean person, shower every day, wash clothes and bedding regularly but this makes me feel dirty and horrible. Has anyone any advice? It is getting me down so much, I want to curl up and die. I don’t have a partner so can’t ask them to smell me and I think everyone I work with thinks ‘I know why!’

Thank you

@HangingOver

Way to crowbar that agenda in poppymaewrite

(I'm also a vegan before you come at me)

Lol. It’s widely accepted that gut health is directly relevant to mouth health, and veganism directly relevant to better gut health. No agenda.

I'm sorry for the reactions of others op. Hope you get it sorted. It must be difficult.

Vegans and vegetarians can suffer with bad breath too @poppymaewrite!

Probiotics. You are killing off all the friendly bacteria in your mouth. Yoghurt might help. Sugar free probiotic yoghurt. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Do you eat enough? Do you miss breakfast? Sometimes bad breath can be caused by having an empty stomach.

My mum had to start visiting the hygienest every month for a while and this sorted it. Now goes twice a year again.

I have Crohn's and maybe a call to your ibd team might get some answers, I've seen a few people mention it on forums and groups.

Vegan farts stink.

My DS is stinky when he has a cold and has been asleep so I also suspect post-nasal drip. Antihistamines?

I used to work with a lady who suffered with this. Her issue was Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This is not a minor ailment, so please don’t feel bad about troubling your Dr with this - even if only to rule it out. Sending you 💐

I’d suggest a probiotic capsule, something like Solgar acidophilus. My dh sometimes has bad breath and after a few weeks on probiotics, it goes.

The Food Hospital had a woman with terrible breath and drinking mint tea all the time (instead of water) helped.

Ok @poppymaewrite & I agree with you, but surely you could have found a way to phrase it without using such unpleasant terms. This is why people find many vegans judgmental.

You need to ask someone (a sibling, a parent, a friend) to tell you honestly if your breath smells.

At the moment I am 50:50 whether people are genuinely recoiling, or you are seeing what isn't there. Clearly neither your GP nor dentist could detect anything, and it is easy to get paranoid about these things.

Tonsil stones, postnasal drip, or a gut issue. Do you wake up with a cough at all, get a lot of sore throats - could be postnasal drip?

Probiotics could help gut maybe?

For tonsil stones a steroid nasal spray can help manage post nasal drip which leads to tonsil stone formation. If it's hard to get to GP at present to get a strong prescription one, there are milder formulations available in the hay fever sections of pharmacies. Make sure it's got an active ingredient like beclometasone, rather than just the saline ones.

I also wonder if you're looking for any sign that people think it's bad, and it might not be so bad as you think. People would have to be incredibly rude to actually cover their noses (unless pregnant and ultra sensitive to smells). I can only think of one colleague with really bad breath and even then I'd tend to just keep a little more distance than talking, but nothing obvious.

I used to have this. It was awful. People would step back or away from me when I spoke. They often stood behind me! "Friends' would pointedly say, 'I'll meet you in a few minutes. I'm just going to brush my teeth!' As if I didn't! I used mouth wash, dental floss and cleaned my teeth with an electric toothbrush for two minutes three times a day.

In my case, I'm pretty sure it was a side effect of antidepressants that weren't mentioned on the medical info. When I stopped taking them, it vanished. But I did also have stomach ulcers at the time, which could have caused bad breath maybe. And I'm convinced the mouthwash created the need for more mouth wash by turning sour and stale after a while.

Get dental check ups to rule out any decay as that smells awful until treated. Drink lots of water and suck sugar free mints but maybe avoid mouthwash. Drink fruit and herb teas during the day more often than coffee.

I’m so sorry OP, that must be so upsetting.

I’d definitely echo others and suggest going to the GP - there must be something medical going on in mouth/throat/abdomen to be causing a smell that would make people step back. I hope you can find out soon.

No agenda

Bullshit. I agree with LegoCaltrops comments like yours are the reason people think we're all arseholes.

Can you smell your breath when you have a mask on?

Are you completely sure your breath smells? Can you do a sniff test - put a spoon at the back of your throat then smell it is what I’ve heard before.

When I was a teenager I had severe depression and would sometimes go days without brushing my teeth. My breath must have been awful, but nobody ever commented and plenty of people still hugged me, so it surprises me that so many people are making obvious gestures like covering their face.

@Londoncatshed

Do you eat enough? Do you miss breakfast? Sometimes bad breath can be caused by having an empty stomach.

This is what I was thinking

Do you eat at the same times each day? I've read that it can be about poor gut health so if you skip meals, eat too much junk or have food intolerances it upsets the guy and that affects the breath. if you google gut health there's a lot of good info.

See your GP again hun, keep pushing for help. Don't feel bad about going, even in these times. It's their job.

Some people have a problem with anxiety where they are paranoid they smell when they don't.

I wouldn't self-treat with anything; get to the root cause by seeing a doctor.

My youngest had terrible breath every morning when she was 3/4 and sometimes even now she has it through the day. She has quite bad rhinitis and sleeps with her mouth open. This causes her breath to stink, even though she’s brushed her teeth and is clean. I have to remind her to close her mouth to sleep and make sure she’s taken her steroids when she’s got a flare up of stuffiness.

Try speaking to a pharmacist. Mine is lovely