{"id":5413,"date":"2014-07-03T09:07:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T16:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/about.zoosk.com\/en\/?p=5413"},"modified":"2021-06-01T00:24:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:24:32","slug":"advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/","title":{"rendered":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Joan Actually,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been seeing this girl for about 2 months and things have been going well. She\u2019s super fun and the chemistry is there, but she has disgusting breath. She doesn’t smoke or have coffee breath–it’s more like a rotting mildew smell. At first, it was a little gross, but now it\u2019s overpowering. It\u2019s so nasty that I don\u2019t feel like kissing her anymore. I’ve been offering the gum and the mints, you know, like a hint, but it’s not working. She\u2019s been wondering why I’m distant and trying to figure out what\u2019s wrong. What do I do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to some statistics<\/a>, over 40 million Americans suffer from chronic bad breath. Before approaching your girlfriend about her halitosis, it’s a good idea to understand more about the issue. “There are several causes of bad breath,” says Dr. Martha Dawson, D.D.S<\/a>, “poor brushing and flossing are probably the primary reason, but dry mouth, gum disease, and illness\u2014like a sinus infection or post nasal drip\u2014can also cause some funky breath.” If you’ve been frustrated that the mints and gum aren’t working, you shouldn’t be surprised: “Mints and gum will temporarily cover up the odor,” says Dr. Dawson, “but you really need to get to the source.” Once you take care of the source, the problem should solve itself. “Despite the terrible smell, bad breath is an easy problem to solve,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the bad breath is easy to fix, bringing it up is not. It’s awkward for all parties involved. So awkward, in fact, that most people would rather let the relationship fizzle than bring it up. Since you\u2019ve made a two-month investment and everything else is working out, I suggest you muster up some courage and have the talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a possible game plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Serve up some snacks at home when it\u2019s just the two of you.<\/li>
  2. After snack time, say, \u201c[insert pet name], I think food is getting caught between your teeth, and it smells kinda weird.\u201d<\/li>
  3. Suggest a quick tooth brushing session: \u201cTime to brush.\u201d<\/li>
  4. Afterwards, kiss girlfriend and say, \u201cAhh, so much better. I love that minty feeling.”<\/li>
  5. WITH A SMILE, add, \u201cEvery once in a while, I think I can tell what you\u2019ve had for lunch. I\u2019ll let you know if it gets a little intense.\u201d<\/li>
  6. Change subject.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Look at it this way\u2014if you don\u2019t say anything, the relationship will end, so you might as well bring it up. See diagram below for reasoning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Dear_Joan_Bad_BreathV2\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Being honest with your girlfriend will give her the opportunity to correct the problem\u2014and help you avoid a break up. Just like any other difficult conversation, your success depends on your delivery. If you are respectful, easy going, and act like it’s a very minor setback, this situation can be easily corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Try this approach if your date isn’t a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":12465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[884],"tags":[758,759,755],"class_list":["post-5413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dating-advice","tag-eh","tag-hetero","tag-universal-sex"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What you should do if your date has bad breath.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What you should do if your date has bad breath.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Date Mix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoosk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-03T16:07:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-01T07:24:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joan Actually\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Zoosk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Zoosk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joan Actually\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?","description":"What you should do if your date has bad breath.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?","og_description":"What you should do if your date has bad breath.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/","og_site_name":"The Date Mix","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoosk\/","article_published_time":"2014-07-03T16:07:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-01T07:24:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joan Actually","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Zoosk","twitter_site":"@Zoosk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joan Actually","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/"},"author":{"name":"Joan Actually","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#\/schema\/person\/07aca570fa7c4251ba62c7df4557b695"},"headline":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?","datePublished":"2014-07-03T16:07:22+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-01T07:24:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/"},"wordCount":502,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg","keywords":["EH","hetero","universal sex"],"articleSection":["Dating Advice"],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/","name":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-03T16:07:22+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-01T07:24:32+00:00","description":"What you should do if your date has bad breath.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2014\/07\/31151033\/relationship-advice-bad-breath.jpg","width":800,"height":600,"caption":"A couple getting closer."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/advice-my-girlfriend-has-really-bad-breath\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dating Tips","item":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/dating-advice\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"My Girlfriend Has Really Bad Breath: How Do I Tell Her?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/","name":"The Date Mix","description":"Dating and Relationship Advice for Today's Daters","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#organization","name":"The Date Mix","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/TDM-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/TDM-logo.jpg","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"The Date Mix"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoosk\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Zoosk"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#\/schema\/person\/07aca570fa7c4251ba62c7df4557b695","name":"Joan Actually","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/avatar_user_37_1523047117-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/avatar_user_37_1523047117-96x96.jpg","caption":"Joan Actually"},"description":"Joan is a writer and dating expert.","url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/author\/joan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}