Bad breath and its association with age and gender

Halitosis is a health condition associated with an unpleasant odor from the oral cavity. The origin of bad breath may be related to systemic and oral conditions, but the large percentage of cases (about 85%) are related to oral factors. Our aim was to investigate the presence and degree of halitosis in healthy patients and to compare it accordance with age and gender. We examined 79 healthy patients with an apparatus to measure bad breath - HC-212SF FitScan Breath Checker of Tanita Corporation of America, Inc. We obtained a result of 0.87 for the group under 18 years old, 1 for the group 19-51 years old and 1.5 for the group over 51 years. In our study the average value was 0.88 for men and 1.39 for women. Of all tested persons about one-third did not show any bad smell, while 77 percent have some degree of positive result. Considering the condition in relation to gender, we observed that 43% of men and 25% of women do not have a bad odor from the mouth. About 29% had the lowest positive value (1), value 2 about 28% and only 1.3% had a very high degree of halitosis. This study indicates augmentation of the values of bad breath with the increasing of age. Women have a bad smell from the mouth more often. In all age groups we observed higher degree of bad breath in women.