Feces Smell Coming From Mouth And Nose. Endoscopy Normal. What Could Be Causing This?

Posted on Fri, 19 Apr 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 Answered on

Sun, 12 May 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : hi just had a question, i have this feces smell coming from my mouth and nose 24/7 and its alot worse when my bowels are full. its like a direct smell of feces coming out of my nose when i breath. i've been to the dentist recently and i have no teeth or gum problems and also went to a gastroenterologist for a upper and lower endoscopy and found no problems, basically i have this bad smelling and tasting saliva and mucous and really bad direct feces smell coming from my nose and mouth, i have no liver problems i dont drink smoke, im on a strict no meats, no sugar, gluten free, no dairy diet

Answered by Dr. Poorna Chandra K.S (20 hours later)

Hi XXXXXX and thanks for contacting XXXXXXX
Feculent smell of the breath can be because of -
1) Reduced motility of the stomach and duodenum leading to prolonged staying of food in the stomach
2) A fistulous connection between the stomach - duodenum and the colon
As your endoscopy and colonoscopy were normal decreased motility is the likely cause. Rarely chronic sinusitis can produce bad odours and smell.
Hence have an ENT checkup and if it is normal I would suggest you to have an Barium enema. You also XXXXXXX your gastroenterologist to get a prescription of a prokinetic (improves motility) and may be a local antibiotic like rifaximin.
Regards
Dr XXXXXXX

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar