Organoleptic testing for bad breath.
Judging a person’s breath by way of organoleptic testing simply means that the researcher performing the breath evaluation has used their sense of smell (their nose) as the means for making the determination. Historically this method of breath testing has been a frequent choice among dental researchers. Noses are readily available, inexpensive to obtain and operate, and to their credit, noses can detect up to 10,000 different smells. One of the problems associated with using organoleptic testing is that this technique is not totally objective. Another is that factors other than just breath odors can and do influence organoleptic evaluations. In fact research has shown that factors such as hunger, menstrual cycle, head position, and the degree of attentiveness and expectation can each influence a judge’s interpretation of what they smell.
