Halitosis and Oral Health Related Quality of Life

Objectives: Halitosis as a multicausal disease has gained more and more attention within the last two decades. A negative effect of halitosis on social life is discussed in literature, even though the clinical studies dealing with this issue are sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of halitosis on oral-health related quality of life.
Methods: One instructed examiner measured the halitosis according to the Rosenberg Scale (0-5) in volunteer participants. In addition, the patients’ VSC-concentration was measured using a Halimeter®. All participants were asked to fill in an OHIP-14 questionnaire. To detect correlations between the respective values, the data were analysed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient using SPSS 22.
Results: A total of 539 adults between 18 and 85 years of age participated in this study; 57.0 % (n=307) were female. The average VSC-concentration was 153.7 ppb, average Rosenberg score was 1.0±1.3 (ρ=0.691, p<0.001); average OHIP score was 5,5±7,2. Like organoleptic and halimetric measurements, patients’ self-estimation correlated significantly with the VSC-concentration (ρ=0.174, p<0.001) and the OHIP score (ρ=0.243, p<0.001). However, there was no correlation between VSC-concentration and OHIP score (ρ=0.014, p=0.752).
Conclusions: In this study, no impact of haltosis on oral health-related quality of life was identified. The average values found for OHIP score and VSC-concentration were, looking at similar studies, in the range of expectations. Since many clinical experiences have shown that some individuals suffer indeed severly from their halitosis, the self-estimation seems to be the most reliable sign for an impact of halitosis on oral health related quality of life, while an “unconscious influence” does not seem to exist.