Source
Department of Operative and Preventive Dentistry, Charité-University Medical School of Berlin, Dental School, Germany. rainer.seemann@charite.de
Abstract
AIM:
To report the data from a multidisciplinary bad breath consultation in Germany.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
In this cross sectional study, 407 patients attending a bad breath consultation were examined by a specially trained dentist, with an ENT-specialist, an internist, and a psychologist on call.
RESULTS:
All patients reported suffering from bad breath but only 72.1% showed detectable signs of breath malodour. Within this group, 92.7% revealed an oral cause, 7.3% revealed an extra-oral cause. Within the group without malodour, 76.3% had received prior diagnostics and treatments from other doctors, whereby 36% had received one or more gastroscopies and 14% had undergone an ENT operation. In only ten cases had an organoleptic evaluation of the putative malodour been performed.
CONCLUSION:
Our data reveal that breath malodour is mainly of oral origin and that patients with pseudo-halitosis are frequently not diagnosed correctly by doctors, resulting in a considerable amount of over-treatment.