Canadians worried their bad breath may be a social liability can have their mouth odor checked at a new breath-testing clinic.
The University of British Columbia, which announced its bad-breath service Monday, says a patient will have their breath scientifically analyzed for halitosis — and then checked by a human sniffer.
“This clinic provides an objective measure for people concerned about their breath,” said Don Brunette, associate dean of the university’s dentistry faculty.
To conduct the tests, staff suck air from a patient’s mouth with a syringe and use gas chromatography to check for the presence of sulfur compounds that cause bad breath.
“In addition, an oral biologist specializing in breath malodor gives a subjective evaluation. The patient sits behind a privacy screen and exhales into a tube. The breath evaluator sniffs the breath coming from the tube and assesses it,” the university said.
A visit to the clinc costs $150 Canadian ($110 U.S.).
^REUTERS