Department of Dental Hygiene, Jeonju Kijeon College, Jeonju 54989, Korea.
Department of Dental Hygiene, Namseoul University, Cheonan 31020, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 23;19(1):108. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010108.
Mechanical tongue cleaning is an important oral hygiene procedure; it is known that a significant cause of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), a major component of bad breath, is due to the bacteria coating the tongue. This study was conducted to identify the effect of mechanical tongue cleaning on reducing bad breath and tongue coating.
Various mechanical tongue-cleaning methods were studied, including removing tongue coating using a toothbrush, removing tongue coating using a tongue scraper, and removing tongue coating using a toothbrush and a tongue scraper together. The results were as follows.
First, the organic bad breath measurement value after cleaning the tongue significantly decreased in the group using only the toothbrush, the group using only the tongue scraper, and the group using both the toothbrush and the tongue scraper. However, there was no difference between the groups. Second, after cleaning the tongue, the measured values of the tongue coating in the values of WTCI (Winkel's tongue coating index) and Qray view were significantly reduced in all three groups, and there was no difference between the groups. Third, the gas measurement value in the oral cavity using a machine significantly decreased only the HS value of the group using the tongue scraper immediately after the mechanical tongue cleaning.
From these results, it can be confirmed that mechanical tongue cleaning is effective at reducing bad breath and tongue coating. However, in this study, there was no difference in the reduction effect according to the tools (groups) used for mechanical tongue cleaning. It can therefore be seen that wiping accurately from the rear of the tongue to the front is more effective at reducing bad breath and tongue coating.
机械清洁舌头是一种重要的口腔卫生程序；众所周知，挥发性硫化合物（VSCs）的一个重要原因是覆盖在舌头上的细菌，它是口臭的主要成分。本研究旨在确定机械清洁舌头对减少口臭和舌垢的影响。
研究了各种机械清洁舌头的方法，包括使用牙刷去除舌垢、使用舌刮去除舌垢以及同时使用牙刷和舌刮去除舌垢。结果如下。
首先，仅使用牙刷、仅使用舌刮器和同时使用牙刷和舌刮器的组中，清洁后舌头上的有机口臭测量值明显降低，但组间无差异。其次，清洁舌头后，WTCI（Winkel 舌涂层指数）和 Qray view 的舌涂层测量值在三组中均明显降低，且组间无差异。第三，使用机器测量口腔中的气体值时，仅使用舌刮器的组的 HS 值在机械清洁舌头后立即显著降低。
从这些结果可以证实，机械清洁舌头可以有效减少口臭和舌垢。然而，在这项研究中，使用的工具（组）对减少效果没有差异。因此，可以看出，从舌后部到前部准确擦拭更有效地减少口臭和舌垢。
