On a night out with friends at a local bar, someone attractive catches your eye from across the room. They approach you and make conversation, but dreams of what could have been a beautiful relationship are shattered due to this person's serious case of bad breath.
You might wonder why this person doesn't follow proper dental hygiene, but according to Dr. Violet Haraszthy, the assistant professor at UB's dental school, mouthwashes and fancy gums are only ways to mask a more serious condition known as halitosis.
"Billions of dollars are spent by the population on mints, gums, toothpastes and mouthwashes, which will help the bad breath for a day, but it won't eliminate the problem," said Haraszthy. "It will just mask it."
With the help of two of her colleagues and student assistants, Haraszthy is leading an investigation into the causes of chronic bad breath.
"We are studying halitosis, which is a disease commonly referred to as bad breath," said Haraszthy. "This investigation has helped us discover that bacteria in the oral cavity is the cause of this condition."
Bad breath can be caused by many factors, and in women can be a natural occurrence. However, eating a lot of garlic and onions or simply being female is not the cause of chronic halitosis, said Haraszthy.
"With women, sometimes we can have bad breath due to hormonal changes in our bodies," said Haraszthy. "But that is different than having halitosis."
According to Haraszthy, her research involves examining nine patients with halitosis and eight healthy patients. The investigators then try to isolate specific bacteria in the patients who have the disease.
Haraszthy also stated that chronic halitosis is more of a social dilemma than most people would think, and also perhaps more common. Haraszthy said that many patients come in complaining of bad breath that they cannot beat.
"This is quite a devastating problem for some patients and many of them come in to the office for treatment because they realize that their mouthwashes and gums are not helping," said Haraszthy.
Doralee Gerber, senior biochemical pharmacology major and student assistant in this investigation, this type of research has been taking place since she first began participating.
"I've been involved with the research for two years now and I think it has been going really well," said Gerber. "We're comparing healthy mouths to mouths with halitosis to identify the bacteria that is common in the mouths that have halitosis."
Haraszthy stated that she and her team began this research because they did not realize how severely people are affected by halitosis, both socially and emotionally. She also stated that close to 50% of the American population is affected by bad breath and in many cases, these people may not be aware that they have a disease that cannot be cured by over-the-counter remedies.
"We have patients who say they can't go to church because people turn away from them," said Haraszthy. "And we have discovered that some of the identified bacteria can be related to human feces."
The investigative group hopes to help their patients who live with halitosis by identifying the bad breath-causing bacteria, and creating superior treatments for them to use.
"Our goal in this investigation is to improve the treatments available for patients who suffer from halitosis because this can be a very devastating problem for those who have a severe case of it," said Haraszthy.
In light of this investigation, some students agree that bad breath can be a social problem and that ignoring it can make others suffer.
"I think that people do ignore bad breath but they shouldn't because it hurts the next person," said Barrington Gordon, junior marketing major.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
