Halitosis in patients living with chronic kidney disease: An updated narrative review.

Authors

Xiao Xian Qian

Published in

Journal of nephrology. Sep 26, 2026. Epub Sep 26, 2026.

Abstract

This narrative review summarized the latest findings on halitosis in patients living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), including its epidemiology, etiology, classification, contributing compounds, diagnosis and treatment. Halitosis is present in 30-57% of patients living CKD in most reports. Accumulated metabolites in the blood circulation and multiple oral changes secondary to CKD are its main causes. It consists of intra-oral halitosis and extra-oral halitosis according to etiology. Ammonia, dimethylamine, trimethylamine, hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulfide are its main contributing compounds. A combination of the subjective organoleptic test and the objective OralChroma breath test is essential for its diagnosis. Also, it is recommended that the organoleptic test and OralChroma breath test be performed for both mouth and nose breath. By comparing these two sets of results, clinicians can identify which subtype of halitosis is predominant in an individual patient. Kidney replacement therapies and antibiotics appear to be effective to treat this condition through reducing accumulated metabolites in the blood circulation.

PMID:
42798233
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.