Introduction: Chronic bad breath, malodor or halitosis is a common symptom that often brings the patient to the physicians. Is necessary to differentiate genuine halitosis (physiological and pathological types), pseudo-halitosis and halitophobia. T he aim: The aim of our study was to clarify whether a problem of halitosis is most often the result of the creation of tonsils stones and it’s an issue for the otolaryngologists. R esults: After analyzing the available literature (Scopus database, PubMed) it was found, that tonsils stones are only 3% of all causes of halitosis. This fact must keep in mind during the diagnosis and treatment of halitosis. Over 90% of the halitosis deriving in the oral cavity. Tonsils stones are a pathological condition as a result of dysfunction of the self-cleaning mechanism of the tonsil crypts, which predisposes the accumulation of food residues in the tonsil crypts and formation of mass with an unpleasant smell. Including this symptom as a feature of chronic tonsillitis is still controversial. The presence of tonsil stones does not always cause discomfort or other signs and not must be treated. C onclusion: The analysis showed that the halitosis problem has a very diverse background. It follows that before you start treating halitosis at an otolaryngologist, especially using surgery, you should perform a very thorough analysis of the ailments, often using to consult other specialists (dentist, gastroenterologist, nephrologist).
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