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(1) Background: Halitosis is a frequent condition that affects a large part of the population. It is considered a “social stigma”, as it can determine a number of psychological and relationship consequences that affect people’s lives. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of psychological factors in the condition of self-perceived halitosis in adolescent subjects and adulthood. (2) Type of studies reviewed: We conducted, by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, systematic research of the literature on PubMed and Scholar. The key terms used were halitosis, halitosis self-perception, psychological factors, breath odor and two terms related to socio-relational consequences (“Halitosis and Social Relationship” OR “Social Issue of Halitosis”). Initial research identified 3008 articles. As a result of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the number of publications was reduced to 38. (3) Results: According to the literature examined, halitosis is a condition that is rarely self-perceived. In general, women have a greater ability to recognize it than men. Several factors can affect the perception of the dental condition, such as socioeconomic status, emotional state and body image. (4) Conclusion and practical implication: Self-perceived halitosis could have a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life. Among the most frequent consequences are found anxiety, reduced levels of self-esteem, misinterpretation of other people’s attitudes and embarrassment and relational discomfort that often result in social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Halitosis is a frequent condition that affects a large part of the population. It is considered a “social stigma”, as it can determine a number of psychological and relationship consequences that affect people’s lives. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of psychological factors in the condition of self-perceived halitosis in adolescent subjects and adulthood. (2) Type of studies reviewed: We conducted, by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, systematic research of the literature on PubMed and Scholar. The key terms used were halitosis, halitosis self-perception, psychological factors, breath odor and two terms related to socio-relational consequences (“Halitosis and Social Relationship” OR “Social Issue of Halitosis”). Initial research identified 3008 articles. As a result of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the number of publications was reduced to 38. (3) Results: According to the literature examined, halitosis is a condition that is rarely self-perceived. In general, women have a greater ability to recognize it than men. Several factors can affect the perception of the dental condition, such as socioeconomic status, emotional state and body image. (4) Conclusion and practical implication: Self-perceived halitosis could have a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life. Among the most frequent consequences are found anxiety, reduced levels of self-esteem, misinterpretation of other people’s attitudes and embarrassment and relational discomfort that often result in social isolation.

Controlled, evidence-based research studies are essential to ensure functional pet food, treat and supplement ingredients are efficacious. However, understanding how nutritional technologies influence pet health and well-being in the pet's home environment is an additional way to derive further insight on performance and effectiveness. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of supplemental Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SCFP) using subjective pet owner insights coupled with an analysis of fecal metagenomic characteristics in dogs using an in-home testing approach. Healthy adult dogs (n = 348; 170 males and 178 females; mean age = 6.0 y; mean BW = 18.2 kg) were recruited from across the U.S. and randomly allotted to one of two treatment groups blocked by breed, gender, age and BW. Owners were asked to feed their dogs their usual food, treats and supplements throughout the 60-d study. The SCFP was delivered in a daily chew. The control was a placebo chew void of SCFP (CON), and the treatment chew (EPI) was formulated to deliver 7 mg· kg BW-1· d-1 SCFP (EpiCor postbiotic, Ankeny, IA). Surveys were fielded on d 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 to obtain pet owner subjective ratings of supplement performance across key health attributes. Fecal sample collection kits were provided to respondents on d 0, 30 and 60 for shotgun metagenomic analysis. All statistical analyses were conducted in R v.4.1.2. Ordinal logistic regression using the package ordinal in R was conducted on the survey data to understand relationships between the predictor variables and the ranked outcomes. Metagenomic data were analyzed using phyloseq, vegan, lme4, LinDA and emmeans packages in R. Differences P < 0.05 were considered significant and P ≤ 0.10 as trends after FDR correction. Dogs receiving the EPI chew received numerically higher immunity ratings throughout the study and overall tended to be 95% more likely (P = 0.10) to receive a higher immune health rating versus CON. By d 60, EPI dogs were more likely (211% greater odds; P = 0.007) to exhibit less breath odor and 165% more likely to be less anxious (P = 0.02) than CON dogs. An increased relative abundance in butyrate producing taxa Anaerostipes hadrus (P = 0.002) and Megamonas (P = 0.001) and Fusobacteria (P = 0.004) were observed in EPI dogs emerging at d 30. Under the conditions of this study, daily supplementation of a SCFP supplement provided a spectrum of positive health outcomes in healthy adult dogs. Moreover, there was consistency in physiological benefits noted in previous controlled studies in healthy dogs fed SCFP to the owner-perceived changes in several health attributes in this study. Our data also suggest that SCFP may beneficially affect key indicators of breath odor and anxiety in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fact that only a human can judge the objectionability of an odor, organoleptic examination (sniffing and scoring oral odor) was used as a reference standard of oral halitosis measurement. However, there are several problems that make the diagnostic value of organoleptic examination questionable. There is no universally accepted, precise definition, standardization or calibration in organoleptic examination, including scoring, scaling or safety protocols. Standardization, calibration, reproducibility, reliability, objectivity, specificity, accuracy and sensitivity of organoleptic measurements are doubtful. It is extremely subjective, emotional, instinctive, intuitive, speculative, hedonic and highly flexible. In addition, it is found to be repulsive, primitive and moreover even shame is experienced by patients and examiners. Non-standard protocols on pre-measurement, scoring, scaling, and training processes may cause misinterpretation or misdiagnosis since it depends on the examiner's emotional mood, gender, ethnicity, odor detection spectrum, threshold and even climatic conditions. It is not the gold standard, and not even considered standard. It is difficult to recognize, identify or focus on a particular gas among thousands in the breath. Organoleptic examination may not be necessary due to it not being a good diagnostic tool for halitosis. There may be an infection risk for sniffers or patients. Moreover, female examiners may have disadvantages in olfactory accuracy during organoleptic examination since menstruation, pregnancy and menopause may alter their odor sensation. In addition, age limits the reliability of examiners due to age-related smell loss. According to the psychophysics laws, the human nose can recognize odors logarithmically. There is no reason to think that scoring the oral malodor by sniffing the mouth of the patients obtains sufficient evidence for the diagnosis of halitosis. Portable multi-gas detectors and electronic noses, can be suggested as an alternative instead of sniffing patients. This is the first paper in the literature to criticize organoleptic examination, revalue its health risks and inconsistencies in assessment protocols., (© 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Intra-oral halitosis is defined as an unpleasant odor that comes out of the mouth. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of zinc lactate mouthwash and tongue scraping on intra-oral halitosis. The study was conducted on 60 volunteers that were divided into two groups and fol-lowed two types of 14-day oral hygiene protocols on a cross-over basis after a 7-day wash-out period. One protocol was based on tooth brushing only, while the other was based on additional mouth rinsing with a zinc lactate product and tongue scraping. Morning mouth breath was as-sessed organoleptic and by volatile sulfur compound concentrations. The highest mean organo-leptic and volatile sulfur compound measurement values were found in the tooth brushing without mouth washing and tongue scraping oral hygiene protocol (p < 0.05). The zinc lactate mouthwash combined with tongue scraping appears to be an important hygienic procedure to reduce breath odor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three types of metal oxide gas sensors were adopted to detect the degree of breath odor. Various sorts of information are included in the odor. Each sensor has different sensitivities to gaseous chemical substances and the sensitivities also differ according to human behaviors, for example taking a meal, teeth brushing and drinking something. There is also a possibility that the sensor can detect degrees of daily fatigue. Sensor sensitivities were low for the expiration of the elderly when the subject drank green tea. In this study, it is thought that the odor system can be incorporated into a healing robot. The robot can communicate with the elderly using several words and also by connecting to the Internet. As for the results, the robot can identify basic human behaviors and recognize the living conditions of the resident. Moreover, it can also execute a kind of information retrieval through the Internet. Therefore, it has healing capabilities for the aged, and can also receive and transmit information. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]