Halitosis and oral health-related quality of life: a case report.

OBJECTIVES This is a clinical case of a 36-year-old Dutch male, patient in the Dr. S. van Mesdag Forensic Psychiatric Centre in Groningen. It demonstrates a short-time effect of a tailored oral hygiene self-care intervention in three sessions over a period of 3 months on halitosis and a patient's oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL). METHODS In addition to a dental screening and professional oral hygiene care, a semi-structured interview was conducted by the dental hygienist, and questionnaires were administered. The questionnaires included were; the Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14-NL; used as a measurement of OH-QoL), scales for expected social outcomes for having healthy teeth, attitudes towards oral hygiene behaviour (OHB) and dental anxiety. RESULTS Clinical observations showed an improvement in patient's OHB, while the extreme foetor-ex-ore was reduced to an acceptable level. A retrospective assessment showed that patient's attitude towards the recommended OHB together with his self-perceived OH-QoL had positively increased. CONCLUSIONS This case highlights the value of professional individual oral hygiene instructions performed by a dental hygienist. It also illustrates that a patient's effective OHB may play an important role in the reduction in halitosis and self-perceived OH-QoL. Finally, the retrospective version of the OHIP-14-NL may be an adequate method to assess self-perceived OH-QoL within a relative short period of time.