الفهرس 
1) IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 150 |  |  |
| | | from | 150 | | |
Abstract
The present study evaluated the relation between the oral and dental health status and malodor in children complaining of halitosis, through investigating their medical and dental history as well as, examining their caries prevalence, oral hygiene status, gingival health and oral malodor assessment and evaluation.
The study population comprised children aging 6 – 12 years complaining of halitosis. All children complaining of Halitosis were examined by an otolaryngologist to rule out any nasal or paranasal or pharyngeal causes of halitosis. Data collected from parents or caregivers of the children including their personal data, types of Odoriferous Foods and the presence or absence of any physiological or medical condition to fill the clinical chart which is specially designated for the halitosis patients.
Subjects with halitosis due to oral causes only were selected, and then a thorough dental, gingival and oral hygiene status were done. Subjects with the highest indices were selected, then grouped into 3 groups: i) group 1: children with cavitated teeth only, ii) group 2: children with both cavitated teeth and bad oral hygiene, iii) group 3: children with bad oral hygiene.
Oral malodor assessment was done by a portable sulphide monitor (Halimeter ®) to measure VSCs in the oral breath. Those measures were done to each group in order to obtain a baseline data.
The Subjects were instructed to refrain from oral activities, including eating, chewing, brushing, and mouth rinsing for 2 hours before each appointment.
Subjects were also asked not to use commercial mouthwash for 1 day before their appointment. This was essential to prevent dietary or cosmetic odors from influencing the VSCs assessments. Measurements were conducted between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning.
Subjects were asked to close their mouth and to breathe through the nose for 3 min before the Halimeter reading was taken. Three samples are taken with 3 minutes intervals to complete the full sample cycle, after which the average peak indicators will light displaying average peak ppb value for the 3 samples. And so baseline readings were obtained in the beginning of the study before any dental or oral manipulations.
Oral hygiene instructions were given to the child in the presence of accompanying parent. The subjects were also informed about the importance of oral hygiene through instructions and demos to protect against oral malodor.
After maintaining the optimal oral health (e.g., restoration of carious teeth and scaling), the patients were given 4 weeks of self-administrated oral care and were monitored for maintenance of adequate oral hygiene. Then the measurements were taken and recorded again, then a follow up of 3 months and then 6 months is done and final readings were taken at the final appointment. Measurements from the final appointment were compared with those from the first appointment and the one after 1 month and those after 3 months.
The study revealed that only a small number (3 children) of the study subjects had received oral hygiene instructions from a health care professional at some point of their lives, dental services offered to these patients were either in the form of restorative treatment or extractions, to palliate pain or improve esthetics. Only two patients in the primary dentition stage who had experienced premature extractions in posterior arch segments had space maintainers while the others remained without space maintainers. Only 3 of the subjects in the present study visited dentists or physicians about the malodor problem.
Another important fact which the present study showed is using the Halimeter as a sulphide monitor, it’s a valuable tool for assessment of oral malodor, as it showed a lot of advantages over the old methods as gas chromatography, such as: (i) no need for skilled personnel; (ii) non-invasive; (iii) No cross-infection; (iv) portability; (v) rapid turnaround time of two to three minutes between measurements.
Despite the fact that tooth brushing reduces the number of bacteria and fermentable substrates in the mouth. However, no difference was found between frequency of tooth brushing and oral malodor.
The present study showed the dramatic effect of the comprehensive dental treatment including oral rehabilitations and dental restorations side by side with mechanical and chemical debridement of oral cavity. And it also proved that the use of chlorhexidine mouth rinse alone is not effective as when using it with dental restorations and oral rehabilitations.
.