Bad breath, or halitosis, is well known to everyone - that foul odor that we sometimes encounter on the breath of a person close by. It's familiar enough that we all know it's common, but how common is it? There have been very few halitosis social studies done to answer this question. In fact, the condition was more or less ignored by the medical community and the social sciences until late in the twentieth century.

The cause of halitosis was not clearly identified until the 1960's, when Dr. J. Tonzetich described the production of volatile sulfur compounds in the mouth. These compounds are produced by anaerobic (oxygen hating) bacteria living in the mouth and expelled in the breath. After this discovery, researchers were able to identify which bacteria were the primary producers of VSC, and locate where they were living in the oral cavity. All of this accumulating knowledge guided efforts to produce an effective halitosis treatment, but it did not contribute much to halitosis social studies.

There is no doubt that having bad breath can have a devastating effect on a person's social life. Others avoid close contact with an afflicted person so they won't have to endure the smell. Close friendships and dating become very difficult. A person who knows he or she has bad breath may withdraw and avoid contact with others. In fact, the fear of having bad breath has produced nations of mint sucking, gum chewing citizens, and even halitophobics, who believe they have bad breath when they really do not. In recent years, dentists and doctors have turned more attention on the problems of halitosis sufferers, and a few have done halitosis social studies to find out more about how it affects the population.

In the end, there still aren't enough statistics to allow any definite conclusions, but halitosis social studies suggest that almost 25% of people suffer from halitosis at some time in their lives, with higher numbers in the older age groups. One study found that about 50% of older people have morning breath. Study design differ - in order to gather reliable statistics on the prevalence of halitosis, researchers need to agree on a standard definition of the condition and a reproducible means of measuring it. Halitosis social studies of the social impact of the condition are yet to come.