Evaluation of halitosis using OralChroma™ in patients with allergic rhinitis.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of halitosis in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we enrolled 53 patients with AR and 34 participants as controls. Halitosis was evaluated by measuring volatile sulphur compound (VSC) levels. VSCs, which consist of hydrogen sulphide (HS), methyl mercaptan (MM), and dimethyl sulphide (DMS), were measured using a portable gas chromatograph (OralChroma™; AbiMedical, Osaka, Japan). RESULTS: Patients with AR exhibited significantly higher levels of MM and DMS that did control subjects. Specifically, MM levels showed a greater increase than DMS levels in patients with AR than in controls. We observed no significant changes in the levels of HS between the groups. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that AR is likely to result in halitosis. Several studies have overlooked the relationship between halitosis and AR. In light of our results, we suggest that halitosis should be further investigated in patients with AR.