Can anybody help me with what this might be? It's making me really miserable.
I have persistent bad breath and a mouth which tastes like "morning mouth" most of the time from around 30 minutes after brushing to the next time I brush. I had put this down to bad oral hygiene, and was embarrassed, but about six months ago I finally worked up the courage to visit a dentist. She removed some of the tartar on my teeth and there was a noticeable improvement, and since this time I have also adopted good oral hygeine, I brush twice daily with an electric toothbrush, and also floss regularly - not always every day because it takes so long but at least once every 2-3 days. Occasionally use mouthwash but not often as I'd read it isn't actually very useful. I had started gargling with water after every meal to prevent food particles sticking in my tonsils but I can't seem to remember to stick to that one. My gums have improved loads since before visiting the dentist and stepping up my habits. But I do think I need to see a different one, because I'm not in the UK and she doesn't speak enough English for me to ask detailed questions.
The other symptoms I get are that I seem to get LOADS of plaque forming on my teeth. Really I should probably be brushing three times a day because by the middle of the day there is a layer built up which I can scrape off, but it's just not always practical. Flossing also brings chunks of white plaque out of my teeth. I get a white film on my tongue. In fact, I bought some disclosing mouthwash to check my brushing technique and it seems fine on my teeth, but my entire tongue went blue.
The bad taste seems to come from the back of the roof of my mouth. If I put my tongue up here, I can taste it.
I used to get tonsil stones but not so much any more, more commonly now I can feel something on the back of my tongue and if I pull it out with my fingernail, it's like a mushed up tonsil stone/build up of white gunk which stinks and it's just horrible :( The white layer on my tongue is difficult to remove with the ridged back of a toothbrush. When I spit, the foam isn't white, it's yellow. It's really disgusting.
Out of desperation I have tried rubbing toothpaste on my tongue and the roof of my mouth to "kill" whatever is there and that seems to lead to a huge wash of saliva which rinses it all out and it does taste and feel better for longer than 30 minutes but not for very long, and it makes me gag.
My husband is nice about it but sometimes he does say that he doesn't want to kiss me if it's bad, or asks me to face a different way in bed because it's unpleasant :( It's not even the case that if he mentions it's putting him off I can go and do a quick freshen up because a proper freshen up takes me 15+ minutes.
I found some stuff online about mouth flora which talks about a kind of "probiotic" for the mouth, which seems to make sense and I was thinking of trying, but it's about €30 for the tablets and it seems a bit like snake oil, so I'm not massively convinced.