Character traits of malodor patients.

Many patients visit oral malodor clinics because of malodors which are brought to their attention by friends and family, or because they note the behavior of people around them, they suspect a problem and develop a fear of having an oral malodor. However, only around 30% of such patients actually have levels of malodor high enough to bother other people. Many patients exhibit halitophobia symptoms, which present as self-perception of malodor, and thus have a strong obsession about their smell which results in distress. Here, we carried out a study on 300 outpatients who visited the Tokyo Dental College Chiba Hospital Odor Clinic. We used the Tokyo University Egogram (TEG) to elucidate character traits of affected outpatients and compared the occurrence of TEG types in these patients with those of normal individuals. We discovered that 10.4% of patients were A-dominant type, which was 10.6% lower than the 21.0% of normal individuals. On the other hand, 18.4% of patients were N-type (NP high, FC low), which was 9.9% higher than the 8.5% of normal individuals. Results revealed that very few of the malodor outpatients exhibited the trait that shows intelligence, calm judgment, and self-affirmation, and as a result enjoy their life. Instead, many of these patients tended to show high levels of kindness and appeared to be holding themselves back and exercising patience.