Site-Specific Mouth Rinsing to Improve Oral Odor by Altering Bacterial Counts: Blind Crossover Clinical Study

Objectives: To determine whether site-specific mouth rinsing with oral disinfectants can improve oral odor beyond the traditional panoral mouth disinfection with mouth rinses by targeting specifically oral malodor implicate anaerobic bacteria.

Methods: Twenty healthy fasting subjects volunteered for a blinded prospective, descriptive correlational crossover cross-section clinical trial conduct during the month of Ramadan in the lunar Hajri year 1434 AH (10 July 2013-8 August 2013) in Albaha province in Saudi Arabia involving the application of Listerine® Cool Mint® mouth rinse by either the traditional panoral rinsing method or a site-specific disinfection method targeting the subgingival and supragingival plaque and the posterior third of the tongue dorsum while avoiding the remaining locations within the oral cavity. The viable anaerobic and aerobic bacterial counts, volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) levels, organoleptic assessment of oral odor and the tongue-coating index were compared at baseline, 1, 5 and 9 hours after the treatment.