Bad Breath >:(

Barbieliveshere

I have a friend who has constantly bad breath. It is actually that bad that when she speaks to me i have to turn my head away..! She has terrible dental hygiene but i do not understand how she can't realise that her breath is potent. JUST BRUSH YOUR TEETH DAMMIT!

Also had this problem with my orthodontist which i found very ironic....

Anybody else know people with this problem
Is there a way of telling her nicely?

frozenfrozen

offer a tic tac, people love tic tacs

spurious

Bad breath can be caused by problems at the other end of the tube, so to speak.

Barbieliveshere

Everytime we speak i always think of the line from shrek.

Donkey 'Man you need a tic tac or something cause your breath STINKS'

But i can't be mean i don't want to hurt her feelings.

Wibbs

frozenfrozen no more of that "bitches" guff. Remember where you are or better yet don't post if that's all you'e got

Madame K

I know it's hard and we don't want to seem rude but as a friend you should tell her. I don't know how to nicely address such a matter.

You'll need a social assassin: http://bit.ly/R1jakz

You can always offer her some mints (Altoids) or strong minty gum handy whenever she's near. I'm sure she'll eventually get the hint.

Barbieliveshere

That is brilliant i do need one! I do offer her mints or chewing gum whenever im around and sometime she takes it and other times she says she doesn't want one so im always like YOU SURRREEE?? Such a hard subject to tackle because i don't want to offend her even though her breath is offending everyone else!

ljpg

just take her to one side and tell her,thats what friends do,as someone already suggested it might be a stomach problem and needs to be looked at

Piriz

Hi OP, ive recently heard of 10 minute email...a disposable email service... you can use this to inform her of her breath and you will remain anonymous

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

ljpg

Piriz wrote: »

Hi OP, ive recently heard of 10 minute email...a disposable email service... you can use this to inform her of her breath and you will remain anonymous

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

thats awful.......and mean......and funny...

Barbieliveshere

It's the social assassin!

elchupanebrey

It might be a touchy subject at first but she'll hardly be too offended. I know i'd tell a friend if their breath was bad.

I told someone they smelled like onions once and they were a bit put out for like 5 mins. But we stil get on. She's still my mother lol.

Bambii_

The best thing you can do is sit down to her and tell her in a nice way that she has bad breath. She might not be aware of her problem and might even be grateful for you confronting her about it.

I remember when I was getting my make-up done the girl (who was lovely and a talented make-up artist) had horrendous breath. It was almost sickening. Like your orthodontist she was a professional working close to my face and she should have made more of an effort to keep her breath smelling fresh. It's not any great effort to pop a few polos every now and then.

dellas1979

A lovely person whom I work with and am friends with has awful breath.

When ever I am in the car with them, Ive to open the windows.

It is not an easy subject to broach. I dont want to hurt their feelings.

I tried one day - I started by talking about my own teeth "oh think I should go for a teeth clean...." and then asked "do you ever go for one?" all I got was a "yeah".

I can also see plaque on the persons teeth. The funny thing is one day they popped into a shop and bought listerine.

Bad breath can come from poor dental hygiene (more often than not), or from the stomach, or from smoking. But it is a really really hard thing to broach. Its like telling someone they have BO.

Edit: BTW, as mentioned above, telling them nicely would be great, but what would be considered a "nice" way to tell someone this/broach the subject?

Barbieliveshere

dellas1979 wrote: »

A lovely person whom I work with and am friends with has awful breath.

When ever I am in the car with them, Ive to open the windows.

It is not an easy subject to broach. I dont want to hurt their feelings.

I tried one day - I started by talking about my own teeth "oh think I should go for a teeth clean...." and then asked "do you ever go for one?" all I got was a "yeah".

I can also see plaque on the persons teeth. The funny thing is one day they popped into a shop and bought listerine.

Bad breath can come from poor dental hygiene (more often than not), or from the stomach, or from smoking. But it is a really really hard thing to broach. Its like telling someone they have BO.

Edit: BTW, as mentioned above, telling them nicely would be great, but what would be considered a "nice" way to tell someone this/broach the subject?

Exactly my problem and she does smoke and i know she never brushes her teeth. So how do i tell her nicely? Is there a way?

Posy

I don't smoke and have a friend that does. I have no problem telling her she smells like an ashtray and backing away from her if she doesn't eat a mint pronto.
I would rather be told, if it was me. If some random stranger/work colleague tells her, she could be mortified and ask why you never said anything to her in the first place.

But I would have no problem in saying 'your breath smells like rotten fags, eat this mint or feck off.'

Maybe I should be a social assassin.

mikom

Barbieliveshere wrote: »

Exactly my problem and she does smoke and i know she never brushes her teeth. So how do i tell her nicely? Is there a way?

Dear workmate.
Your breath is so bad that people look forward to your farts.
Sort it out.
Signed.... your friend.

Barbieliveshere

Posy wrote: »

I don't smoke and have a friend that does. I have no problem telling her she smells like an ashtray and backing away from her if she doesn't eat a mint pronto.
I would rather be told, if it was me. If some random stranger/work colleague tells her, she could be mortified and ask why you never said anything to her in the first place.

But I would have no problem in saying 'your breath smells like rotten fags, eat this mint or feck off.'

Maybe I should be a social assassin.

You are deffo social assassin material? You for hire?

mikom wrote: »

Dear workmate.
Your breath is so bad that people look forward to your farts.
Sort it out.
Signed.... your friend.

You are also on the social assassin list!

Bambii_

Barbieliveshere wrote: »

Exactly my problem and she does smoke and i know she never brushes her teeth. So how do i tell her nicely? Is there a way?

I think they only way to tell her nicely would be to be honest. Tell her you're not trying to offend her, but you don't want people bitching about her behind her back because she's your friend and you don't want her upset. Don't drag out the subject, be short and sweet, and then just move on and have a cuppa

flowerchild

Barbieliveshere wrote: »

Exactly my problem and she does smoke and i know she never brushes her teeth. So how do i tell her nicely? Is there a way?

One option is to go to a quiet very private place together and tell her that what you are going to say comes from care and concern for her, it is not a criticism. Let her know in a soft voice tone tat she has bad breath. Ask her if she needs support in going to a dentist. If that doesn't address the issue I am sure she could go to a specialist breath clinic. Some people are phobic about dentists. She may need someone to come with her and hold her hand. It may not be a lack of awareness of the problem - she may not know how to move to action.

Stench Blossoms

My sister had this problem. Her breath was vile but she couldn't smell it.

She was talking to me one day and I was like 'LORD MOTHER OF GOD U STINK!'

Turns out she had some weird hole in her gum that was filling up and causing the smell.

Got it sorted eventually but the point I'm making is your mate might not be aware of the smell.

Novella

I would have absolutely no problem telling any of my friends if they had bad breath, in the same way I'd tuck in a label if it was sticking out of the back of their top or I'd let 'em know if they had something stuck in their teeth. I dunno, I wouldn't mind if someone said it to me so I could sort it.

Lia_lia

Easy. Make an anonymous facebook page and send her a message kindly saying her breath is bad and she should do something about it!

Stench Blossoms

Lia_lia wrote: »

Easy. Make an anonymous facebook page and send her a message kindly saying her breath is bad and she should do something about it!

No no no

If someone did that to me I'd be more upset that one of my friends hadn't the balls to say something like that to my face.

Just tell her. Don't be childish and hide behind a facebook page.

Lia_lia

Oh well I'd personally prefer to have it said to me anonymously. Could be quite embarrassing for a lot of people. Depends on the person I guess, you know best OP!

syklops

mikom wrote: »

Dear workmate.
Your breath is so bad that people look forward to your farts.
Sort it out.
Signed.... your friend.

Dear former friend,

Thanks for the heads up. A quick chat outside of work aswell as some suggestions would have been less embarassing and might have clued me in better as to my particular problem. Instead, thanks for giving the IT guys a laugh at my expense.

Sincerely,

Your former friend.