Abstract
Object Halitosis has great adverse impact on personal and social life. There is no strong evidence for the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) and combined Chinese and western medicine (CWM) on halitosis. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effective rate of CM and CWM on halitosis. Materials and Methods Literature search in English and Chinese was conducted in PubMed, Embase, CNKI, CBM, and Wanfang database. Study selection and data collection were conducted. Risks of bias were assessed by the Cochrane tool. Synthesis of results was done by RevMan 5.3. p<0.05 was considered significant difference. Subgroup analysis by classification of halitosis and sensitivity analysis were also conducted. Results Seventeen studies were included. The follow-up length ranged from five days to eight weeks. CM had significantly better effect than WM on intraoral halitosis (I2 =24%; RR=1.21 (95% CI, 1.04, 1.40), P=0.01) and extraoral halitosis (I2 =0; RR=1.39 (95% CI, 1.19, 1.63), P<0.0001). CWM had significantly better effect than WM on intraoral halitosis (I2 =0; RR=1.25 (95% CI, 1.16, 1.35), P<0.00001) and extraoral halitosis (I2 =0; RR=1.19 (95% CI, 1.08, 1.31), P=0.0004). Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis showed insignificant results. Conclusion With the limitation of our study, both CM and CWM have significantly better effect on halitosis than WM. More effort should be made to explore long-term effect of CM and CWM on halitosis. This study was registered with the PROSPERO (ID: CRD42018107229).
Highlights
Halitosis is defined as offensive odor exhaling from oral cavity, the main component of which is volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) including hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, and methyl mercaptan [1]
western medicine (WM) mainly diminish the level of VSCs or related anaerobic bacteria having drug resistance and side effect on the existing oral microbial ecology [11]
The aim of the present study is to evaluate effective rate of Chinese medicine (CM) and Chinese and western medicine (CWM) versus WM on intraoral and extraoral halitosis
Summary
Halitosis is defined as offensive odor exhaling from oral cavity, the main component of which is volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) including hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, and methyl mercaptan [1]. Eighty to ninety percent of genuine halitosis has intraoral sources, including gingivitis, periodontitis, and tongue coating in favor of microorganism [8]. Halitosis with extraoral sources comes from systematic diseases such as nasal inflammation, diabetes mellitus, respiratory, and digestive diseases or medication [9]. Current western medicine (WM) for halitosis mainly includes mechanical methods (periodontal initial treatment, oral prophylaxis, tooth brushing, flossing, and tongue cleaning) and chemical methods (chlorhexidine, essential oil, menthol, chlorine dioxide, and two-phase oil-water rinse) [10]. In cases of extraoral health, WM discussed above has little effect on the systematic sources, resulting in relatively high recurrence rate and low patient satisfaction [2]. There is no way to treat halitosis with unknown sources [9]
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