At my worst, my morning routine looked like this: brush for two minutes, floss, scrape my tongue until my eyes watered, rinse with mouthwash for a full 30 seconds, then — just to be safe — another mint before leaving the house. By 10am it was back.
I'd tried prescription mouthwash. Charcoal toothpaste. Tongue scrapers that cost more than they should. Probiotic mints. None of it fixed anything. Some of it helped for an extra twenty minutes. Most of it did nothing at all.
The worst part wasn't the smell. It was the anxiety it created. I'd started turning down lunch invitations. I'd answer questions with shorter sentences so I didn't have to breathe towards anyone for too long. I was letting bad breath quietly shrink my life and I didn't even fully realise it.