6. Check for bad breath. An easy way to tell if you have bad breath is to smell your saliva. Lick the inner part of the wrist with the back region of your tongue. Wait 5 -10 seconds to allow the saliva to dry. Then, smell your wrist, the odor you smell is very close to the actual smell of your breath. If you smell a clearly unpleasant odor, you may have bad breath. Otherwise, if it doesn’t smell like anything, then your breath is probably okay.