For all my life I have had an awful breath, even if I would brush my teeth 3+ times a day and very properly. If you suffer from this, you know what kind of social problem it is. I was always speaking to other people with the face directed down, and never frenchkissed any girl. I tried oral disinfectants but they were very expensive and I didn't notice any improvement. Mint pills are totally useless: a real worldwide scam. Even more useless are those tablets which claim to resolve halitosis from the stomach (halitosis doesn't come from there).

Looking for info over the Internet I discovered the following:

- Bacteria on the tongue, on the palate, between the teeth (use dental floss), and all around below the tongue are the responsible for bad breath. The stomach is irrelevant. In rare cases a post-nasal drip could be responsible but it's rare. To defeat halitosis you have to kill the bacteria. The effect is nearly immediate (a few minutes).

- In order to test if you have bad breath you should lick your wrist (lick deep with the tongue, as back parts are the most smelling ones), wait 5 seconds and then smell your wrist. That is the odor of your breath. Don't try to smell your breath directly with a concave hand covering mouth and nose: it doesn't work.

- In order to kill bacteria I use a common disinfectant for external use, inside the mouth. BEWARE: some disinfectants are potentially lethal if drunk (but probably you would need to drink significant amount in order to kill yourself). Furthermore, some active principles could penetrate into the blood from under the tongue, so shouldn't be used. I can't tell you a few active principles which CAN be used within the mouth (because I've asked to doctors): surely chlorexidine, benzalconium chloride and 2-hydroxy-diphenyl can be used. If you are uncertain, ask to doctors over the Internet, based on the active principles. In Italy the Germozero disinfectant can be used for this purpose and it contains benzalconium chloride and 2-hydroxy-diphenyl. I would strongly advise you AGAINST using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) inside the mouth, even if diluted: it kills bacteria but burns your tongue. If you dilute it too much it still burns your tongue but doesn't kill bacteria anymore (that is, bacteria are more resistent than your tongue). Some internet sites suggest this but I absolutely don't. Use a normal disinfectant.

The technique is this: you spray some disinfectant into your mouth or over the toothbrush, and then you gently clean the above of your tongue, the external and internal sides of your teeth (including the space between the teeth and the lips, going inside as much as possible), the palate (optional, not very needed) and the areas below your tongue. Take particular care on the areas below your tongue: while your toothbrush is under your tongue, go far inside (gently), at the left and at the right side of the tongue. Many bacteria settle there (in the canals between the lower teeth and the tongue, below the tongue, way inside) because the saliva doesn't let any air in there, so they can multiplicate freely in a sort of nest, and then they spread when the saliva moves in your mouth. Go there with the toothbrush filled with disinfectant, and kill them all.

After this, spit out the saliva+disinfectant you have in the mouth, but DON'T rinse with water (because the disinfectant which stays in the mouth is going to kill more bacteria in the next minutes). Also DON'T swallow (because swallowing all the residual disinfectant at once is not nice, even if I did it many times by mistake without significant problems): if your mouth is full, spit out again. Spit out at need for the first 3 minutes or so, then you can also swallow (DON'T rinse with water).

Once done the first times of your life, the whole process takes 30 seconds and clears you of bad breath completely, giving you an excellent breath for a time variable from 4 hours to 4 days approximately... The exact time depends on what you eat/drink next, and on your natural predisposition to bad breath. If you want to clear your bad breath again during the same day and you are not at home, you can use a portable disinfectant, like the ones contained in the first-aid boxes. You can bring that one with you and simply spray on your mouth at need (wash your mouth with the tongue from the inside). In that case, when your mouth is full of liquid, your only choice is to swallow. It will not be so bad.

When you are at home, if you want an extra-reliable and long lasting bacteria cleaning, you have also to use the dental floss (argh...). So you also remove the bacteria settled between your teeth. The disinfectant is not usable in this case, just use the dental floss normally.

Side effects: Other than potential problems of drinking disinfectant, be aware of fungi: cleaning bacteria too much, can make fungi take over in your mouth. Most asymptomatic mouths contain some sort of fungi, usually candida, which are held under control by bacteria. If you kill all the bacteria, the fungi will take over. You will start feeling an itch somewhere in the mouth, which won't go away, and your breath probably stays clean (bacteria can't take over anymore now). If you keep feeling the itching for 8 hours or more, it's very probably the fungus. Fungi are harder to remove than bacteria, but don't panic: buy an antifungal oral gel in pharmacy (better to buy it IN ADVANCE and keep it at home) the active principle is usually miconazole. It's a gel which you keep in the mouth for a couple of minutes, and then swallow. (In Italy you can use the "Daktarin Gel Orale 2%") Good tasting :-) In an emergency you could also use an antifungal for external use (I have tried econazole nitrate in liquid form... DON'T use powder forms!): put it in the tip of your finger and use the finger to rub into your mouth in the exact place of the itching. But be aware that I DON'T KNOW if this could be dangerous: I have not checked! So do NOT swallow the econazole nitrate for external use: I have no idea of its safety. Try to buy the miconazole oral gel: that one is very safe (meaning that you can try it even if you are not sure that your symptoms are really from a fungus; but really wait 8 hours of itching before "diagnosing" a fungus because a few hours of itching can happen even if you disinfect too much and don't necessarily mean that a fungus will take over). Defeating the fungus can require one day, maximum two days if you catch it early on symptoms. After defeating it once with the antifungal (and you should continue with the miconazole oral gel for 3-7 days after the disappearance of symptoms, as usually recommended by the instructions of the miconazole oral gel) it is much less likely to reappear a second time. So you could even do a 3-7 days session of miconazole oral gel as a prevention before starting using the disinfectant.

Also be aware that alcohol (beer, wine and higher alcohols) will make your breath significantly worse: you can check this by yourself. Al