Journal of Dental Research, Vol 79, 1773-1777, Copyright © 2000 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals

ARTICLES

Morning breath odor: influence of treatments on sulfur gases

F. L. Suarez, J. K. Furne, J. Springfield and M. D. Levitt
ACOS for Research, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, MN 55417, USA.

We assessed the effects of several treatments on the concentrations of oral sulfur-containing gases, compounds thought to be responsible for morning breath. Upon awakening in the morning, healthy volunteers collected oral gas samples before and for eight hours after the following treatments: no treatment, brushing the teeth with toothpaste, brushing the tongue, rinsing with 5 mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide, breakfast ingestion, or swallowing two BreathAsure capsules. The gas samples were analyzed for sulfur-containing volatiles via gas chromatography. Baseline collections usually contained three sulfur gases: hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, and dimethylsulfide. The effectiveness of a treatment was determined via comparison of the areas under gas concentrations-time curves with and without treatment. Brushing the teeth or ingestion of BreathAsure had no apparent influence on the sulfur gases. Ingestion of breakfast and tongue brushing resulted in strong trends toward decreased sulfur gases. Hydrogen peroxide significantly reduced the sulfur gas concentrations for eight hours.

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