It is Impossible to Exhale into Your Hand and Smell Your Own Breath

You might have really bad breath (also known as Halitosis) and not even know it. And believe it or not, it is not possible to smell your breath by cupping your hand, expelling into it then smelling. All you are in effect doing is smelling your hand. That's because humans are genetically structured in a way that makes it impossible to smell your own breath - it is a function referred to as Acclimation. Acclimation is necessary, because without this feature, our sense of smell would be permanently shrouded by our own odors and scents.

You can smell your breath in a whole different number of ways, and most can be performed at home. The most meticulous system of bad breath checking is one that can't be done at home. You will need to visit a clinic that features in bad breath and oral problems and they will use a Halimeter to gauge the level of sulfides that live in your mouth.

Why Sulfides? Sulfides are arguably the root cause of bad breath. Everyone has the same bacteria in their mouth, and the bacteria that we have in our mouths need to be there. There is a lot of bacteria in our mouths and the bacteria actually perform the very important job of breaking down proteins in foods we eat, as well as in decaying oral tissue. But for some people, the bacteria reacts in a different way with these proteins and the culminating factor is known as "volatile sulfur compounds" (VSC). These sulfur compounds, also known as Sulfides, produce the odor.

Following are a number of methods for analyzing your breath at home. They are quite humble and in no way are they as effective as using the Halimeter, but they can give you a very good idea on just how bad your breath is.

Asking someone you absolutely trust is by far the quickest and easiest method to check your breath. Tell them that you want a 100% legitimate answer, and get them to check your breath at different times of the day, because there will be some changes.

The cotton gauze test involves you taking a piece of clean cotton gauze, wiping the top of your tongue with it, then checking it for smell and color. If you sense an odor then you're more likely a bad breath sufferer. And, if you notice a yellow/brown blemish on the gauze, you have positively got a heightened level of sulfides and are very likely to have extreme bad breath.

Now this method might sound a bit strange, but you can actually check your breath by licking the back of your hand. The process is simple - just lick the back of your hand and let it dry for 10-15 seconds - then smell it. If there is an odor present, then you've got bad breath. The interpretation for this is simple. When you lick the back of your hand, the sulfides travel from your tongue to your hand.

Believe it or not, but dental floss can be a very simple method for checking on bad breath. In fact, it not only gives you an indication of whether your breath smells, but it can give you a clear guideline on how to extinguish the smell too. That is, floss your teeth, paying specific attention to the rear teeth, then smell the floss - if you pull out chunks of food and they smell, then you'll know right away that your breath won't be too pleasant, and you will also get a quick appreciation of the fact that if you keep on flossing you might just get rid of the halitosis.

The easy tongue-coloration test doesn't specifically involve smelling anything, but it can give some very good insight into your bad breath problem. All you need to do is stand in front of a mirror and poke your tongue out as far as you comfortably can. What you are looking for is if there is any coloration, like white or yellow/brown, and if there is, then it is conceivable that you have a build-up of sulfides and as a result you'll have bad breath.

In summary, there are countless methods for testing yourself for bad breath without visiting a doctor or breath clinic. But you do need to dwell on the fact that these approaches in no way compare to the performance of using a specialized tool like a Halimeter. Furthermore, Gum, Breath mints, breath strips and mouthwash are NOT the answer. They are just part of a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry which provides a very short 'cover up' for the real cause. The real answer to solving the bad breath problem is to minimize the concentration of sulfides that exist in your mouth. Do this and people will stop offering you mints and breath strips, and they will possibly carry on longer conversations with you.