Ok, this is completely off topic but I need all the help I can get. You guys always have some great advice so I hope no one minds me posting this here.

I met a seemingly good guy a couple weeks ago. We talked for about 2 weeks via text/phone/interwebz before our schedules matched up for a date. We had tons of chemistry while talking and it was the same in person.

However, his breath about blew me out the door! Seriously, I had to roll down the window about 4 inches in the car to get fresh air while we were talking. His breath smells like a really bad infected tooth. I dry-heaved but covered it up with a cough. Needless to say I bypassed the first kiss....


He is smart, funny, sweet, totally cute, etc.. I really don't want to let something like this be a deal breaker. I don't think gum, mints, etc. is going to help at all. He has a nice smile with nice teeth, but when he smiles really big you can see he's got some issues at the gum line. Definitely in need of some dental work. That also means his breath is an ongoing issue and not a one time thing.

How do I handle this? I don't want to be shallow but the thought of going anywhere near his mouth, or being in close quarters with him makes me gag. There has to be a happy ground somewhere?

I don't have any advice to share, but I just want to say that I don't think you're shallow at all. Sounds like it's to the point that it's making you almost physically ill--that's bad! I hope you find a solution!

I think you hit on the solution yourself. He likely needs to go to a dentist (or maybe just floss better?). Probably a bit too soon for you to be the one to break this news, however. Maybe bring some mints or gum and offer him one when you're getting one for you. Not a solution, certainly, but could stop the dry heaving until you're close enough for you to suggest the dentist without offending him?

Oye... I have no suggestions, really. My DF works with a man who has horrid halitosis and yet he's married and has many-a-kid. This man's halitosis is horrid - holding your breathe around him, rolling down windows, etc. I'm not quite sure how his wife has managed to look past it, but more power to her!

I would say a dentist or possibly a trip to the doctor is in order! If nothing else, lay it on the line and tell him how interested you are but there is one thing that needs to be dealt with. Seriously. If the odor is that bad, I probably couldn't deal otherwise.

Ok, so believe it or not the topic came up in conversation today. Yes, I sort of wiggled the conversation that way, but regardless it gave me the perfect opportunity to bring it up. He was very cool about it and we had a good laugh. Hopefully this won't be a problem in the future but if it is, at least I know I can talk to him about it.

This is totally nosy (heh, nosy),but how did you tell him and what was his response?

I forget exactly how I got it to come up in the conversation but I ended up telling him and he just laughed and said he was sorry and made jokes about it. He handled it very well.

Now we'll just see if it's like that the next time we go out. If it is, I don't know that I can handle it. I realllllly hope it's not.

It's good that you can start things out on an open and honest note. I hope next time it isn't a problem.