Bad breath

When you’ve tried everything and it’s still there.

Editorial illustration: glass of water bedside table morning

The Tap Turns Off and Nothing Else Does

Morning breath is saliva stopping for eight hours while the bacteria carry on. The useful question is not what you brush with, but whether your nose was blocked.

Editorial illustration: medical gauze roll close up

The Smell Is Made on the Tongue

Most bad breath is made on the back of the tongue, not between the teeth. The people who solved it disagree sharply about the tool, and one of them uses gauze.

Editorial illustration: Macro of a pitted limestone sponge, its cavities packed with dark mineral grit, lit like an anat

What Tonsil Stones Actually Are

The pockets in your tonsils have a real anatomical name, and it's crypts. Things collect in them, harden, and produce a smell nothing in your mouth explains.

Editorial illustration: Split garlic clove under harsh macro light, its papery skin cracked to reveal glossy sulfur crys

Your Breath Is Made of Rotten Eggs, Cabbage and Roadkill

Three specific molecules cause almost all of it. One is rotten eggs, one is boiled cabbage, one is roadkill. Here's what's actually happening in there.