Tongue scraping quells bad breath, scientists say

Plenty of people brush their teeth in the daily battle against bad breath, but did you know that adding a tongue scraper to your oral health routine can significantly reduce your oral odor? So say scientists and dentists alike. Using a specialty tongue scraper followed by a oral care probiotics rinse may sweeten your breath even further.

A team of Korean researchers recently proved that for many people with halitosis, tongue coating is a major cause of their oral odor. Their results appeared in the Journal of Periodontology.

The group, which hailed from Seoul National University's College of Dentistry, tested the mouths of 40 volunteers for volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), the molecules that give bad breath its smell.

After asking participants to use tongue scrapers, researchers tested for VSC levels again and found that they were much reduced. Even among those who had fairly good breath to begin with, using the implement lower the VSC content in their mouths.

"The tongue coating was demonstrated to be a primary halitosis-inducing factor," the authors concluded.

If you don't enjoy scraping your tongue, using an alcohol-free breath freshening rinse can knock out odor-causing bacteria, while an oral care probiotics kit may gradually replace offensive microbes with harmless ones.