title: The proportion of pseudo-halitosis patients in a multidisciplinary breath malodour consultation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report the data from a multidisciplinary bad breath consultation in Germany.
  
  
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Operative and Preventive Dentistry, Charité-University Medical School of Berlin, Dental School, Germany. rainer.seemann@charite.de
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seemann
authors.forename: Mozhgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bizhang
authors.forename: Cyrus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Djamchidi
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kage
authors.forename: Sushma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nachnani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000150:complications; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000150:complications; D005882:Gingival Diseases / Q000150:complications; D006209:Halitosis / Q000145:classification* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008875:Middle Aged; D009666:Nose; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000150:complications; D010808:Physical Examination; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000150:complications; D014059:Tongue / Q000473:pathology; D014069:Tonsillitis / Q000150:complications