Bad Breath and Neuroscience

I have, for years now, noticed my own bad breath (hey it happens!) most prominently when conversing with others. At first, I used to always think it was the other person. Then, I thought I must have some psychological problem whereby I don't want to admit that I had the bad breath.

But lately I've been thinking that there is something about the way our brains are wired up at work here. Today I confirmed by simple experiment (the Holden Caulfield method) that I could not smell my own bad breath this morning before and after talking to someone, but while talking to them I was pretty confident I had it.

My theory is that, when I am on my own, my brain has no cause to worry about bad breath and does not (sometimes can not) detect it. However, when I am talking to someone my brain registers the bad breath which I sometimes misidentify as coming from the other person. Am I subconsciously being more discriminating about odors now that I am in a social context? A quick internet search does support my theory that psychology plays a major role in self-perception of bad breath. The researchers were focused on general self-image correlating to the perception issue rather than a changing context, but I think I am on to something.

Our sense of smell is our most primitive sense (first to evolve, most deeply buried in the brain, least regulated by our active consciousness) so our actual perception of smells are very contextual and individual. (I often have early memories or emotional states brought up from the depths of my mind by certain rare odors).

Perhaps I have finally learned how to acknowledge the plank of an odor in my own mouth rather than point out the speck of bad breath in my neighbors? (apologies to Matthew)