THURSDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with proton pump inhibitors is commonly associated with bad breath in patients with chronic heartburn and acid reflux disease, according to a study presented at the 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in Las Vegas.
Luciana Camacho-Lobato, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues from UNIFESP in Sao Paulo, Brazil, examined the association between halitosis and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in 23 patients with GERD and 17 patients with dyspepsia.
The researchers found that 39 percent of patients with GERD had halitosis, with at least 75 percent of cases traced to the use of a proton pump inhibitor. Only 18 percent of dyspeptic patients had halitosis, according to the study.
"Once we excluded oral cases of halitosis, we discovered that bacteria overgrowth associated with proton pump inhibitor usage might play a role in causing bad breath," Camacho-Lobato notes in a statement.
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