Importance of halitosis. A survey of adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Over the last few years, halitosis has become an increasingly important issue for dentists and their patients. For this study, a questionnaire was distributed in four different vocational/vocational-technical schools in Zurich to find out more about the personal oral hygiene and general knowledge of halitosis of 888 young women and 921 young men between the ages of 15 and 25. The factors of gender, education, professional customer contact, age and size of the residential community were taken into account. Findings were presented on the basis of a visual analogue scale. The survey results showed women to have a more intensive oral hygiene regimen and more frequent check-ups than their male counterparts (p < 0.001). Bad breath was also seen to be a more important issue to women who took more measures against it (p < 0.001). Education and customer contact both had an influence on the perceived importance of halitosis, as well as on the knowledge of possible measures against it (p < 0.001). However, the age of those surveyed and the size of their respective communities did not seem to have an impact (p > 0.05). The analysis showed that halitosis is an important issue for young people, and that a large part of the young population sees tongue cleaning as a part of oral hygiene and intraoral change as a cause of halitosis.