NC for this, as I’m mortified. I know there are some dentists on here and I’m desperately hoping one might be able to help me. The problem is that I seem to have developed the most horrific smell in my mouth, 99.9% certain coming from around a very recently fitted bridge and crown (details below). It really is foul, I floss religiously at least twice a day and – sorry but there’s no other way to describe it - when I floss that part of my mouth the floss smells like faeces and I can smell the same odour being released and it's absolutely awful. My boyfriend, tactful as ever, told me last week that I had bad breath. I am noticing a bad taste in my mouth, although not as bad as the floss smells, and I am just mortified and worried sick that my breath smells – at all, let alone like this. I'm now completely paranoid.
I had a bridge and crown fitted about 3 weeks ago to close a gap caused by the removal of a tooth that broke years after a root canal (RC done about 12 years ago, I’m now 33). The bridge is a premolar and the tooth behind the bridge which has now been crowned is a molar and they’re on the top left hand side of my mouth. Anyway, the tooth that was crowned was giving me some sensitivity issues beforehand but x-rays showed that although there was some decay the root was ok – the dentist debated doing a root canal on it but ultimately decided not to and just cleaned out the decay and filled it. The tooth was filed down to practically nothing to put the crown on and hasn’t given me any pain or sensitivity issues since. It’s a very tight gap between it and the tooth behind and difficult to floss, but I have managed. I definitely did not have this smell before the bridge and crown were fitted a few weeks ago.
I have Googled extensively and all I can find are articles or posts relating to poor oral hygiene, but I think I'm mostly ok in this area. I’ve recently seen the dentist so often we're on first name terms, had x-rays which all seemed ok, I went to the hygienist 5 months ago, I floss twice a day (sometimes more often), I brush 3 times a day for at least 2 minutes each time with an electric toothbrush using Ultradex toothpaste, doing all the surfaces of my teeth, I scrape and brush my tongue, I use mouthwash – Peroxyl, Dentyl, CB12 and Corsodyl Daily (not all at once!) and I have a single tuft brush for doing around my wisdom teeth (at least one of which isn't fully erupted). I regularly clean all the brush heads in a Steradent solution. I drink at least 2 litres of water a day, don’t smoke at all, drink alcohol less than once a week and don’t drink fizzy drinks, tea or coffee. I do eat chocolate but not ridiculous amounts. My gums don’t bleed when I floss or when I use my electric toothbrush, but they do bleed if I brush with a manual brush (which is very rarely, maybe if camping or something). Hygienist didn’t find any problems on last visit which was about 5 months ago, due to go again in about 6 weeks.
I have tried to contact my dentist but they are closed today, I will speak to them on Monday, but just wanting to see if anyone on here has experienced anything similar, and/or if any dentists or hygienists can advise as to what might cause this and how it can be resolved because it’s really upsetting me; I’ve never felt so paranoid or self-conscious and don’t want to let anyone anywhere near me in case I repulse them 