‘Phobia’ refers to an excessive and often persistent fear something or some situation. Halitophobia And How To Treat This Issue

Often diagnosed as a type of anxiety disorder, phobia can last for a lifetime ifnot treated properly. In severe cases, antidepressants, beta-blockers and benzodiazepines are used to alleviate the phobia.

Halitophobia is one such example of phobia where the affected person suffers from the exaggerated fear of exhaling bad breath or having halitosis even after successfully curing it.

In these cases, no clinical evidence is found to support that the patient has any symptom regarding halitosis yet the patient is persistent of having it.

The reasons for Halitophobia include the social stigma i.e. past and present experiences of being treated badly for having Halitosis. It can also root from seeing someone of the family or a friend or acquaintance feeling traumatized over having foul breath i.e. seeing someone struggling with Halitophobia.

Also, if someone has been through treatment for Halitosis not very long ago and faced significant difficulties while doing so, he/she can gradually form this phobia.

What Halitophobia Is

To put it simple, Halitophobia denotes to the panic-induced phobia of having bad odor in mouth instead of not having any odor in reality.

Just as bad breath causes severe disruption in your otherwise normal lifestyle and affects the way you communicate with others, Halitophobia does the same –the only difference is in the earlier case, the issue is real while in the latter, it is just a make-believe situation that does not exist.

Probadbreath is one of the most effective solutions of Halitosis symptoms where you can learn about the steps to get rid of the smell and enjoy a cocktail of food ingredients including super fruits that help removing any foul smell.

However, if someone using such treatment methods overthink a lot about certain products to treat Halitosis, the frenzy can result in a persistent fear from it because treating smelly breath is not the job of overnight.

If you are not patient and determined enough, it will backfire in creating Halitophobia.

Diagnosing Halitophobia

If you are observant enough, diagnosing Halitophobia is not such a complicated task. Certain behavioral changes like someone having a tendency to cover mouth while talking or muttering under the breath, chewing too many gums or mouth-freshening food items etc are the symptoms of Halitophobia.

Unlike bad breath symptoms, Halitophobia does not include any foul smell and therefore you can differentiate between a person suffering from Halitophobia and Halitosis.

Treating Halitophobia

While psychiatrist or psychologist help is the final step in treating Halitophobia, you can help someone in the initial stages of this issue through the following steps –

• Be friendly and honest with the affected person and try to reason with him/her as to why there is nothing to panic.
• If the affected person is adamant about having Halitosis signs and symptoms, try the hedonic or organoleptic assessment, such as the air bag procedure. It is one of the most practical and standard process where the affected person is asked to exhale into the bag to understand that there is no bad smell.
• The process can further be made concrete by asking a volunteer (family of the patient or friend) to take the same test and let the patient compare between his/her and the volunteer’s sample.
• Engage the person in intriguing talk so that he/she is too engrossed to think about Halitosis and once the person is aware after a few minutes, calmly explain the condition of Halitophobia and make him/her understand that the fear is affecting normal lifestyle.