Knowledge of halitosis among dentists and dental hygienists.

Bad breath is a widespread condition that has been increasingly discussed among professionals and in the mass media in the last few years. In nine of ten cases, halitosis originates intraorally; hence it has become an important topic of study in the education and training of dentists and dental hygienists. However, the de facto knowledge of professionals has never been examined until today. 750 dentists and dental hygienists from Switzerland, Germany, and France were personally interviewed. Their knowledge of halitosis was assessed using a specifically designed questionnaire. In general, considerable differences were ascertained between the German-speaking countries and France, dentists and dental hygienists, and women and men. 27.5% of the French participants believed that the underlying cause of halitosis has a non-oral nature, whereas only 8% of the Swiss and German participants believed so (p ⟨ 0.001). In contrast to dental hygienists, dentists more often considered gastrointestinal factors as a cause of halitosis (p ⟨ 0.001). Dental hygienists from Switzerland and Germany more frequently reported the use of tongue scrapers as a therapeutic method (97% and 97.3%) than did dentists of the same countries (87.3% and 89.3%). Among the French participants, only 52% mentioned the use of tongue scrapers to treat halitosis. 2.7% of French dental professionals had participated in a continuing education course about halitosis, which is much lower than the rate of attendance in Switzerland and Germany (46%). Additionally, interdisciplinary discrepancies were observed, as 65.3% of the dental hygienists frequented advanced training courses, which was twice as much as dentists. Therefore, there are clear differences between dentists in France and their colleagues from the German-speaking countries, but also between dental hygienists and dentists. Dental hygienists from Switzerland and Germany appear to be far ahead in terms of halitosis knowledge.

Knowledge of different medical and dental professional groups in Switzerland about halitosis.

Although halitosis is a widespread condition, it is still seen as too personal or embarrassing to talk about. The cause of real halitosis can be intraoral or extraoral. In order to determine the level of knowledge of health care providers in Switzerland, a survey was conducted over a period of three years in which 150 family physicians, 150 ear, nose and throat specialists, 154 dentists and 151 dental hygienists were personally interviewed. The survey shows that only 46.7% of the dentists and only 47.0% of the dental hygienists are consulted by patients for their halitosis, whereas 58.0% of the family physicians and 50.7% of the ENT specialists reported treating 1-10 patients for halitosis per year, while 46.7% of the ENT doctors even reported treating 11-100 patients for halitosis per year. 81.5% of all interviewed doctors and dental hygienists were of the opinion that halitosis mainly originates intraorally. 76.0% of the dentists and 72.8% of the dental hygienists as well as 33.3% of the family physicians recommend periodontitis therapy as halitosis treatment. This proves that a large percentage of medical professionals thinks that marginal periodontitis is the most common cause of halitosis. This study also shows that patients seek first consultations with dentists and dental hygienists less often than with family physicians and ENT specialists, despite the fact that the cause of halitosis is primarily intraoral.