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Study on the Organoleptic Intensity Scale for Measuring Oral Malodor

¹ Centre for Research in Biomedicine, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK;
² Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel;
³ University of Minnesota, 515 Delaware St., SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455;
⁴ University Health Resources Group, 5714, Canterbury Drive, Culver City, CA 90230; and
⁵ School of Dentistry, Jordan University, Amman, Jordan;

Correspondence: ^* corresponding author, john.greenman{at}uwe.ac.uk

The 0–5 organoleptic scale is used widely in breath research and in trials to measure the efficacy of anti-odor agents. However, the precise relationship between odor scores and gas concentrations of target odorants is unknown. The purpose of this study was to relate mean organoleptic scores from odor judges (n = 7) for pure odorants (n = 8) representative of those found in oral malodor. Judges used a common 0–5 scale to report the odor intensity of sample sets in random order of concentration. Regression analysis of data showed that odor score was proportional to the log concentration of odorant, and comparison of slopes showed H₂S to be the most significant in terms of odor power. Detection thresholds (mol.dm^–3) were: Skatole (7.2 x 10^–13) < methylmercaptan (1.0 x 10^–11) < trimethylamine (1.8 x 10^–11) < isovalerate (1.8 x 10^–11) < butyrate (2.3 x 10^–10) < hydrogen sulphide (6.4 x 10^–10) < putrescine (9.1 x 10^–10) < dimethyl disulphide (5.9 x 10^–8). The study demonstrates the exponential nature of the olfactory response and shows that any single compound’s contribution to malodor depends on odor power and threshold in addition to concentration.

Key Words: oral malodor • organoleptic intensity scale • volatile compounds (VCs) • volatile sulphur componds (VSCs) • odor judges

Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 83, No. 1, 81-85 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/154405910408300116


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