Prepare yourself to feel medicals fake. Doctors enter medicine with the hope of making patients feel better. However, when delivering bad news, that's not what happens. No matter how people feel before I give them bad news, afterward they always feel worse. If I don't recognize this as normal, that working hard to make people feel good about bad news is not only counterproductive to the grieving process but potentially deleterious for our doctor-patient relationship, in the long run I'll add to my patients' pain rather than diminish it.
You should also start rinsing your mouth with salt water on a regular basis. You probably know that this is a good way of relieving a sore throat, but salt water rinses can also eliminate bad breath. Of course salt water may make you gag as it does most people If you find that you can't overcome the gag reflex try rinsing your mouth with lemon or medicals fake lime water instead.
With medicals bad and fake the news out there it can't be taken back. The only thing you CAN do, though, is maintain a level of dignity for "Joe" by assuring him that the discussion is just between the two of you.
Tooth and gum problems provide a perfect breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria that are responsible for breath odors in more than 90% of all people who suffer with a bad breath problem.
Designate a particular staff member to take care of patient needs in the reception. In most hospitals and clinics, the receptionist has to take care of the telephone calls, scheduling the doctor's activity, filling out forms, and meeting incoming patients.
Which is why every time I'm about to enter a patient's exam room to deliver bad news myself I pause and remember Mrs. Peterson, a woman I've never seen or heard from since, but whose life I irrevocably changed in the middle of the night while she lay at home in bed without her husband next to her--as she would from that point forward--all those years ago.