Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology
Oral MedicineCharacteristics of patients complaining of halitosis and the usefulness of gas chromatography for diagnosing halitosis*,**
Section snippets
Subjects and methods
One hundred fifty-five patients (51 male and 104 female) who came to the Halitosis Clinic at Kyushu University Dental Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan, were examined. All the subjects were Japanese, and their age was 46 ± 17 years (mean ± SD). The patients complained of halitosis that had persisted for several months or years. In some cases, other people had pointed out the patient’s malodor. On the basis of the attitudes of others, some patients strongly believed that they had malodor. In all
Results
Although 67% of the patient population was female, there was no significant difference between males and females (χ2 test, P > .05) in the age distribution. The halitosis levels as determined through use of the organoleptic test are shown in Table I.
HS, Halitosis score.Empty Cell Empty Cell No. of subjects (%) Empty Cell Empty Cell Halitosis score HS = 0 HS = 1 HS = 2 HS = 3 Male 4 (7.8) 18 (35.3) 24 (47.1) 5 (9.8) Female 8 (7.7) 55 (52.9) 29 (27.9) 12 (11.5) Totals 12 (7.7) 73 (47.1) 53 (34.2) 17 (11.0)
Discussion
In this study, most of the patients who came to our Halitosis Clinic were female. Rosenberg and Leib11 also found a predominance of females in the patient population at their breath odor clinic. It seems likely that females tend to be more anxious about bad breath than males. However, in this study there was no significant difference between males and females in the actual degree of halitosis as estimated through use of the organoleptic test. The organoleptic method revealed that approximately
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Cited by (0)
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Supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (C)(2)11672051 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sport and Culture of Japan.
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Reprint requests:Toshihiko Koga, DDS, PhD,Department of Preventive Dentistry,Kyushu University Faculty of Dental Science,3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku,Fukuoka, 812-8582,Japan