Halitophobia

• Halitophobic patients are absolutely sure of their bad breath. No instrumental or subjective detection methods can convince them otherwise.

Severe impact on social life

• Many people dealing with halitophobia experience extreme isolation.
• As they cannot possibly avoid exhaling their imagined bad breath, many sufferers rather avoid social contact. In consequence, they suffer in their career and employment because of this. They may also be afraid of physical relationships.
• The longer this condition is ignored, the more it may very well spiral out of control, as patients with halitophobia run a twice as high risk of having their social life affected as compared to patients with genuine halitosis. This risk also explains the increased suicidal tendencies in patients with persistent halitophobia (Nagel et al. 2006).

Halitophobia as a mental disorder

• The condition is discussed in context with an olfactory reference syndrome (ORS), which is defined as a psychiatric condition characterized by persistent preoccupation about body odour accompanied by shame, embarrassment, significant distress, avoidance behaviour and social isolation.
• Despite the relatively high incidence (between 5 and 27% of patients with bad breath related problems) scientific data on halitophobia are rare, as the condition is relatively unknown even among specialists.
• As halitophobia patients cannot be convinced of their condition being of psychogenic nature, they consult dentists rather than psychologists. The most conclusive classification of halitophobia is to treat it as a obsessive-compulsive disorder.