P20 Effect of protease tablet on reduction of tongue coating

Abstract

Objective Practical treatment of halitosis requires tongue cleaning since volatile sulphur compounds (VSC) seems mainly to be from the tongue coating. From this point of view, mechanical tools such as tongue brushes or scrapers have been developed. However, approaches by chemical tongue cleaning have not been reported. Thus we developed tablets containing protease from kiwifruits, which could resolve tongue coating, and assessed the effects of the protease tablet to control tongue coating.Methods Crossover studies and double blind experiments were designed using volunteers with informed consent. The trial was done twice per volunteer, that is, they had a tablet with or without the addition of protease from kiwifruits (test and placebo) with intervening washout periods of at least 2 weeks. The degree of change in tongue coating was evaluated visually using a tongue coating score which consisted of an area component (0–3) and a thickness component (0–3). An image analyzer was also used to measure the changing in actual area of coating.Results The average value of the tongue coating scores after taking a test tablet (11.4 ± 5.2) was significantly smaller (P < 0.01) than before taking the tablet (18.8 ± 7.0). Image analyzer measurements also showed significant reduction (P < 0.01) of tongue coating by taking test tablet. On the other hand, a placebo tablet showed no significant effects in both analyses.Conclusions This study indicated that taking protease tablets could reduce tongue coating. We are planning further clinical trials that can show reduced VSC concentrations in mouth air with decreasing tongue coating.