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Halitosis - Background information
What is it?
- Halitosis (bad breath) is a general term to describe an unpleasant or offensive odour in the breath, regardless of the cause of the odour.
- Halitosis can be classified as:
- Non-pathological or transient: this is temporary and normal — for example following ingestion of certain food and drink (such as onion, garlic, alcohol).
- Pathological: this is usually persistent, more intense, and less readily reversible. Causes include oral and systemic diseases.
- Pseudo-halitosis: in which the person believes that they have halitosis, despite evidence to indicate otherwise. An extreme form of this is halitophobia.
[Messadi and Younai, 2003; Porter and Scully, 2006; van den Broek et al, 2007; Hughes and McNab, 2008; Scully and Greenman, 2008; van den Broek et al, 2008]
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