I [28F] am engaged to a wonderful man [28M]. The only problem is that his breath is so bad. He doesn’t drink much water, sips on coffee all day and primarily breathes with his mouth open, which I’m sure doesn’t help. It’s bad enough that it makes me queasy and it’s difficult to be in a car with him because it permeates the cabin.
The thing is, I’ve told him many times that he needs to brush his teeth or have a mint. He’s even had kids (he’s a teacher) tell him that his breath is bad. He’s receptive when I tell him in the moment, but he doesn’t seem to notice or consider that it might smell unless I tell him. I’ll often make comments about how drinking water is important for your breath or will say that I’m going to brush my teeth after eating because I’m worried my breath smells etc to try to nudge him but it doesn’t seem to matter. We’ve been together for 4 years and I had hoped that by now he would start to get the hint. I love him but it makes it hard to want to be intimate with him. I also really don’t want to have to constantly remind him to take care of his dental hygiene for the rest of my life.
Any advice for how to talk to him in a way that might get through? He’s the best in so many ways and I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
Tl;dr my fiancé always has bad breath even though I’ve talked to him about it before. What do I do?