Tongue coating: It’s impact on intra-oral halitosis and taste

Everyone knows someone who has a bad breath. You would rather prefer not to sit next to that person in a party for a long conversation. Most if these individuals have the condition for many years and often known by many others. The medical term for this condition is halitosis. It is an attack on your social life and marriages have broken down by it. The culprit is usually a layer of dirt on the tongue called tongue coating. Volatile sulfur gases, including the famous rotten egg smell, are often the cause. Removal of the tongue coating often reduces the bad mouth odor.

In this thesis a number of important new findings are described.
It is assumed that people with halitosis have different bacteria in their tongue coating than people without halitosis. This turned out not to be the case if examined with modern DNA techniques however the tongue bacteria in people with halitosis behave differently, i.e. the bacterial metabolism has changed. This is the first study that connects the mechanism of tongue coating formation and the development of halitosis with the bacterial metabolome. Some differences were found in the production of certain fatty acids (the so-called 'branched chain fatty aid', BCFA) and also the metabolism of sulfur gas formation became visible. The white matter on newborn babies also consists of BCFA. Finally, this research shows that tongue cleaning results in increased taste perception of salt. This could potentially benefit general health. Therefore, mechanical tongue cleaning should be part of daily oral hygiene measures.