Abstract
It is generally recognized that patients with halitophobia must be treated with great care. When only told the results of breath care measurements, such patients tend to feelmisunderstood by the doctor. A 34-year-old female attended our hospital complaining of oral malodor. She had been worrying about her breath odor for about 5 years. She first noticed the malodor through the attitude of others, including touching of the nose and covering of the mouth. Her concern was reinforced by an offer of chewing gum from a friend. She had attended a breath clinic but had not overcome her anxiety about the malodor. She was worrying excessively about her breath odor and this was restricting her contact with others. She could not even ride a bus.
At our breath clinic, we performed organoleptic measurement, a halimeter test and gas chromatography. We could not detect any measurable malodor but she could not accept those results and insisted that she had a strong malodor nonetheless. Instead of trying to make her accept the results, we simply told her that we understood her concern and anxiety about her malodor. We repeated these objective breath odor measurements and medical interviews and also explained, little by little, that she might be misinterpreting the attitude of others. She did, gradually, begin to accept both the results and our explanations. By the fifth visit, she was almost free of the anxiety and said that she could now ride the bus.
The anxiety of this patient, who had been worrying about her malodor for a long period, disappeared during the course of repeated objective breath odor measurements and accepting, non-confrontational medical interviews.
