Causes and Effects of Halitosis Among Secondary Students in Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Halitosis or mostly commonly bad breath is term used to describe noticeably unpleasant breathing. Halitosis can be important social problem. The standard dental treatment and mouth wash that are often recommended provide only temporarily relief the smell emanating from the mouth. The objectives of this research are to identify the causes of halitosis among secondary student in Ijero Ekiti local government area of Ekiti state, Nigeria and to find out the Effects of halitosis among secondary student in the study area. The study area is Secondary schools in Ijero Ekiti. There are two major secondary schools which are Doherty memorial grammar school and Ijero High School. Students at Mercy Model Private School were excluded from this study as the researcher focused on public secondary school because of prevailing factors. Two public schools were selected for this study namely, Doherty memorial grammar school and Ijero High School. The population of the study area is 2900 for Ijero High School while 3200 for Doherty Memorial grammar school which gave us a total of 6100 students as at the time of this research work. Author used stratified sampling technique where in the population was divided in to two strata [Junior and senior category], where in 25 students were randomly selected from the junior category in each school. Hence, a total of 100 respondents were drawn for the study. Questionnaire was adopted as the instrument for data collection, the instrument was tested through a pilot study with result at 0.91. Results were analyzed using simple percentage, graphs and tables. Students in Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Biomed Sci & Tech Res 33(2)-2021. BJSTR. MS.ID.005360.


Introduction
The term halitosis is derived from the Latin word Halitu, meaning breath and greek suffix "osis" mean condition. Halitosis is defined as a noticeable unpleasant odour that emanates from the mouth which is objectionable to others. it is a medico_ social problem that affect a significant number of people around the world [1]. Halitosis or mostly commonly bad breath are term used to describe noticeably unpleasant of our exhale in breathing.
Halitosis can be important social problem in which the standard dental treatment and mouth wash that are often recommended provide only temporarily relief the smell is from an oral source due to bacterial activities [2]. Halitosis is document to be the third most frequent reasons for seeking dental aid following tooth decay and periodontal disease many studies on self-reported halitosis have stressed that the problem of bad breath is often not self-perceive [3]. Some cases, there is reduced chance of self-detection of oral mal-odor because the path between the inhaled and exhale air is diverge (while exhale air travel horizontally, inhaled air travel primarily vertically).the information fact is that many people do not know that they have a break problem unless someone directly inform them [4]. Some bad breath, however, are considered to be somehow normal one example is "morning mouth" which is as a result of change the condition of mouth during sleeping.
During the day ,saliva washes decaying food and odor out of the mouth. Less saliva is produced at night this the mouth become dry and dead cell sticks to tongue and cell for food ,they produce foul odor [5]. The most common location for mouth related halitosis is the tongue. Tongue bacteria produce mal-odor and fatty acid and count for about 80 to 90 percent of all case of mouth related bad breath. Large quantities of naturally occurring bacteria are often found on the dorsum of the tongue, where they are relatively undisturbed by normal activities [6]. This part of the tongue is relatively dry and poorly cleaned and bacteria population can thrive on remnant of food deposit, dead epithelial cell and postnasal drip.
The convoluted microbial structure of the tongue dorsum provide an ideal habitat for anaerobic bacterial ,which flourish under a continually forming tongue costing of food debris, dead, cells, postnasal drip and overlying bacteria living and dead when left on the tongue the anaerobic respiration of such bacterial can yield either the putrescent smell of in dole, skatole,methyl mercapton, alloymethyl sulfide and dimethyl [7]. There are several cause of halitosis although the main one is oral bacterial over 90 million people suffer from chronic halitosis which is medical term for bad breath in most cases halitosis originate from the gum and tongue, caused by bacterial from the decay of food parties, other debris in the mouth itself [8].
The bad breath differ during the day ,due to eating of certain food such as garlic, onions, meat, egg, smoking and alcohol consumption , since the mouth is exposed to less oxygen and is in active during the night the odour is usually worse upon awakening (morning breath). bad breath rinsing with special mouth wash .various method used to control halitosis (bad breath) such mouth spray and mouth wash may only be temporarily mask the odour created by bacteria on the tongue but cannot cure bad breath because they don't remove the source of bad breath, in order to prevent the production of the sulfur containing compound mention above the bacteria on the tongue must be removed regularly [9].
Most people who clean their tongue use a(tongue scrappy) or a toothbrush. Halitosis has the meaning is bad breath can be form by eating of certain foods, like cooed, garlic, onions, when absorbed into our blood stream, are transferred to lungs and exhale breath will be produced as bad breath and also the breakdown of food particles in and around the teeth can increase bacteria and cause a foul odour. Suffering from some system disease such as liver and kidney, diabetic mellitus, digestive tract infection whereby cases are blocked from passing the stomach or intestines can also bring mouth odour. When the mouth is dry ,saliva production decrease leaving the mouth natural ability to clean itself impaired. Saliva is mouth's natural mouth wash which container properties that keep the mouth clean. All these factor causes halitosis and also enlighten student about it.

Methodology
The study area is Secondary schools in Ijero Ekiti. There are two major secondary schools which are Doherty memorial grammar school and Ijero High School.

Sampling Technique
The researcher adopted stratified random sampling technique to select study sample. The population of the study area is 2900 for Ijero High School while 3200 for Doherty Memorial grammar school which gave us a total of 6100 students as at the time of this research work. Author used stratified sampling technique where in the population was divided in to two strata [Junior and senior category], where in 25 students were randomly selected from the junior category in each school. Hence, a total of 100 respondents were drawn for the study. Questionnaire was adopted as the instrument for data collection, the instrument was tested through a pilot study with result at 0.91 [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Results were analyzed using simple Percentage, Graphs and Tables. Tables 1-4 and Graphs 1 & 2.

Conclusion
Based on this research work, it was concluded that, Halitosis is a major health problem of concern in the study area while there are evidence of low awareness of oral health education among secondary school students in the study area. e) Health workers should always carry out home visitation in order to correct those habits that can impair people's health.