bad breath?

I am a person who is quite particular about hygiene. This means body and mouth hygiene. I shower once or twice a day, I brush my teeth at least twice a day, I floss daily and I gargle daily at night. I have not had any complain from friends and family that I have body odor or bad breath. Fortunately I am not a big sweater and my smooth body both are not conducive for bacterial growth that can cause B.O.

I have been intimate with several people that I thought had B.O. but I have only kissed one person that I thought had bad breath. He unfortunately have bad teeth and gums that I think was the cause of his bad breath. He was also a chain smoker which did not help.

I invited a guy once for dinner at my place and we both ate beef based soup and mango for dessert. We both drank beer as we sat and talked. Later that evening as we both got more intimate with each other, I noticed he did not really like to kiss. A few days later during an online chat, I was able to pry it out of him that he thought I had bad breath that evening. I was surprise of course but at the same time thankful that I got an honest feedback. After all, one does not just nonchalantly say to another that he/she have bad breath unless both are really close friends or family members. And I did not want to be that person who has bad breath but nobody will dare tell him. The bad breath feedback from this guy made me all conscious about myself. I called 4 close friends and asked them if they have detected any bad breath at all from me from all those years that we have been in close proximity to each other. All said no and these are friends who would tell me the truth. I even contacted a guy I have been intimate with to ask him if he thought I had bad breath and he honestly said no too. So do I really have bad breath or this feedback guy was just a very sensitive person that anything less than minty fresh is bad breath for him? Or was he just saying that I had bad breath cause he does not like to kiss? Regardless of whether his feedback was valid or not, I took it seriously and researched about halitosis. The web showed that among the obvious causes of bad breath (gum disease, pungent food, smoking, poor oral hygiene) another thing that can commonly cause bad breath is the food residue that get stuck in our tongue. The web recommend using a tongue scrapper. Boy did I go to the store immediately and bought one. Even if I do not really have bad breath, using a tongue scraper is not harmful. In fact it is another part of good oral hygiene that most of us don't do. My mom was right after all in telling me to use a tongue scraper and I have all these time brushed off her advise.

Now after adapting this new more meticulous oral hygiene routine, I will have to test kissing this guy again for another feedback.