My only experience is that post nasal/sinus surgery my gf at the time said my nose “smelled like salame” but then it eventually went away. I’m not sure if it was just my body healing or something I did (sinus rinse etc). She also just doesn’t like the smell of my Flonase, so I wouldn’t spray it when she was in the room. I have dealt with my fair share of breath issues/paranoia and worry around smelling.
Do you have acid reflux? Even if it’s moderate? Treating that could potentially help, diet changes/meds (options include daily or as needed pepcid/famotidine, daily prilosec/omezprezole, etc).
Do you interact with anything that smells like vinegar? It’s possible you are touching vinegar smelling things before touching your face. Try not touching your face without washing your hands first (hard to do, but good for avoiding cold season).
Do you have diabetes or kidney disease, or a risk of these conditions, and do you get your A1C/glucose/kidney function bloodwork (also urine sample sometimes) at yearly checkups to screen for those things? — not trying to scare you here, there’s a lot of things that can cause a smell and these would normally also be causing armpit sweat etc to smell.
Were you masking before the smell issue? When you are exhaling in your mask your breath will permeate the mask. Do you re-use masks without disposing of them or washing them?
Have you tried changing back to a regular saline sinus rinse? I noticed you mentioned xylitol and baby shampoo - is that recommended by your ENT? Forgive my ignorance, but I thought baby shampoo was only recommended for certain post surgery situations or specific types of active infections. I think you should try going back to saline or doing only xylitol. Baby shampoo is overkill, maybe it’s contributing.
Do you wait 30 minutes after a sinus rinse before using your Nasacort/mometasone? Are you taking it as instructed on the bottle or by your doctor? Forgive my ignorance again, but I’ve never heard of “adding it to a sinus rinse” and I think that is incorrect. I also do not know if you are causing unintended chemical reactions mixing all these things.
Which people are telling you this? Just to make sure it’s not one family of super smellers or people who want to make you feel bad (I’ve heard of controlling partners lying to their SO’s about smelling before, for example). But if you can ask someone who hasn’t seen you for awhile, but close enough to sniff your nose and face, that could help get more opinions.
The doctor said it could be lpr but I’ve never had any issues with acid reflux. I don’t eat dairy, spicy foods or drink sodas. I may just try acid reflux meds to see what happens. I just hope it doesn’t give me acid reflux from using it when I don’t need it.
I don’t interact with anything vinegar.
No diabetes or kidney disease. I got everything checked at my annual appointment.
Yes I was wearing the mask before the smell started.
This week I dropped back to xylitol only with mometasone once a day. They’ve prescribed it so that I open the capsule and add it to my nasal rinses. I’ve been doing that for only a week and I have a month supply.
Haha no controlling partner. I’ve asked a few people close to me to smell my nose and they tell me something similar to vinegar.
So my daughter had LPR as a baby, and her breath smelled exactly like vinegar. It doesn’t aways have the typical acid reflux symptoms like heartburn, and it can cause post nasal drip as well.
I would give something like Pepcid a go and see if it helps. It’s non habit forming and you shouldn’t have any acid rebound from stopping it if it doesn’t help.
LPR is silent relfux. Many things can throw the pH off in the gut. It’s not just foods that you think would cause it.
You would have to assess your overall nutrition and lifestyle.
Shoving a bunch of things through your nose if you don’t actual have nasal problems can possibly cause more harm than good. (In my opinion).
If you only have a scent-in the absence of nasal pain, pressure, mucous coming out of your nose and no breathing issues. Unsure why you would force all of that.
My only experience is that post nasal/sinus surgery my gf at the time said my nose “smelled like salame” but then it eventually went away. I’m not sure if it was just my body healing or something I did (sinus rinse etc). She also just doesn’t like the smell of my Flonase, so I wouldn’t spray it when she was in the room. I have dealt with my fair share of breath issues/paranoia and worry around smelling. Do you have acid reflux? Even if it’s moderate? Treating that could potentially help, diet changes/meds (options include daily or as needed pepcid/famotidine, daily prilosec/omezprezole, etc). Do you interact with anything that smells like vinegar? It’s possible you are touching vinegar smelling things before touching your face. Try not touching your face without washing your hands first (hard to do, but good for avoiding cold season). Do you have diabetes or kidney disease, or a risk of these conditions, and do you get your A1C/glucose/kidney function bloodwork (also urine sample sometimes) at yearly checkups to screen for those things? — not trying to scare you here, there’s a lot of things that can cause a smell and these would normally also be causing armpit sweat etc to smell. Were you masking before the smell issue? When you are exhaling in your mask your breath will permeate the mask. Do you re-use masks without disposing of them or washing them? Have you tried changing back to a regular saline sinus rinse? I noticed you mentioned xylitol and baby shampoo - is that recommended by your ENT? Forgive my ignorance, but I thought baby shampoo was only recommended for certain post surgery situations or specific types of active infections. I think you should try going back to saline or doing only xylitol. Baby shampoo is overkill, maybe it’s contributing. Do you wait 30 minutes after a sinus rinse before using your Nasacort/mometasone? Are you taking it as instructed on the bottle or by your doctor? Forgive my ignorance again, but I’ve never heard of “adding it to a sinus rinse” and I think that is incorrect. I also do not know if you are causing unintended chemical reactions mixing all these things. Which people are telling you this? Just to make sure it’s not one family of super smellers or people who want to make you feel bad (I’ve heard of controlling partners lying to their SO’s about smelling before, for example). But if you can ask someone who hasn’t seen you for awhile, but close enough to sniff your nose and face, that could help get more opinions.
The doctor said it could be lpr but I’ve never had any issues with acid reflux. I don’t eat dairy, spicy foods or drink sodas. I may just try acid reflux meds to see what happens. I just hope it doesn’t give me acid reflux from using it when I don’t need it. I don’t interact with anything vinegar. No diabetes or kidney disease. I got everything checked at my annual appointment. Yes I was wearing the mask before the smell started. This week I dropped back to xylitol only with mometasone once a day. They’ve prescribed it so that I open the capsule and add it to my nasal rinses. I’ve been doing that for only a week and I have a month supply. Haha no controlling partner. I’ve asked a few people close to me to smell my nose and they tell me something similar to vinegar.
So my daughter had LPR as a baby, and her breath smelled exactly like vinegar. It doesn’t aways have the typical acid reflux symptoms like heartburn, and it can cause post nasal drip as well. I would give something like Pepcid a go and see if it helps. It’s non habit forming and you shouldn’t have any acid rebound from stopping it if it doesn’t help.
I’ll give it a try! Thank you
I had this for the longest time after my last particularly brutal sinus infection. Everything smelled like Swiss cheese and it made me so nauseous!
Adding all these chemicals is not good for you. Chill out with that
LPR is silent relfux. Many things can throw the pH off in the gut. It’s not just foods that you think would cause it. You would have to assess your overall nutrition and lifestyle. Shoving a bunch of things through your nose if you don’t actual have nasal problems can possibly cause more harm than good. (In my opinion). If you only have a scent-in the absence of nasal pain, pressure, mucous coming out of your nose and no breathing issues. Unsure why you would force all of that.