"You have bad breath."

Having bad breath is bad enough.  Having bad breath and  being married to a dentist is even worse.  I'm not talking about morning breath, post-garlic meal breath, or "I forgot to brush my teeth, this morning" breath.  No, I have the bad breath that accompanies gum disease.

Here is how this fact was brought to my attention, most recently:

My very nice husband said, one night as we were standing in our bedroom, "I need to talk to you as a dentist."

I had no idea at that point, where the conversation was going.

"Your breath hasn't smelled good." (He said something like that.  I kind of went into an embarrassed blur when I heard the words.)

I asked him how long this had been going on.  He told me had noticed for a couple of months now, but didn't know how to tell me!  Ugh!  I've been walking around scorching people with my breath and didn't even know it. 

It was not my favorite marriage moment, but I appreciated his belated honesty.

And, just in case you're wondering, my teeth look pretty good, so no one (except a dental professional) would even know I have gum disease just by looking at my smile.  But bad breath and gum disease (periodontal disease) go hand-in-hand.  In fact, Dr. Jergins says he can actually smell gum disease when he walks in to meet a patient -- even before he does an exam. 

So, the moral to this story is:  if you have bad breath, see your dentist.  In the meantime, I'll share the one bit of dental advice that came out of that "bad breath" conversation with my husband -- use a tongue scraper. 

(You also should ask your dentist about bad breath on your next visit.)