Comparison of oral malodors before and after nonsurgical periodontal therapy in chronic periodontitis patients

Periodontal diseases have been considered as a source of oral malodor or halitosis. Improvement of oral malodor in chronic periodontitis patients has recently been observed after nonsurgical periodontal therapy in combination with tongue cleaning and/or chlorhexidine mouth rinsing. The present study, however, evaluated the impact of nonsurgical periodontal therapy alone on the oral malodor in chronic periodontitis patients by comparing the intraoral concentrations of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) before and after nonsurgical therapy. Using a sulfide monitor, the total VSCs in exhaled breath were measured in 80 patients with chronic periodontitis prior to and 1 month after nonsurgical periodontal therapy (re-evaluation phase). Malodor was defined as a VSC score > 75 parts per billion (ppb) and > 110 ppb, respectively. Significantly lower level of VSCs was recorded at periodontal re-evaluation (55 ± 9.7 ppb) than before treatment (89 ± 16.3 ppb). Before treatment, 27 (34%) patients were considered to have malodor, defined as VSCs > 75 ppb. After treatment, 16 patients (20%) had VSC scores > 75 ppb, including 10 of 27 patients with baseline VSC scores > 75 ppb and six of 53 patients with baseline scores ≤ 75 ppb. The risk of malodor differed significantly before and after treatment (P = 0.035, McNemar's test). However, when malodor was defined as VSCs > 110 ppb, the difference in risk showed only borderline significance (P = 0.077). On the basis of our findings, we suggest that nonsurgical periodontal therapy has a mild impact on oral malodor.