ORIGINAL ARTICLE: The clinical comparison of a triclosan/copolymer/fluoride dentifrice vs a breath-freshening dentifrice in reducing breath odor overnight: a crossover study

Objective:The objective of this randomized, crossover study was to compare the effectiveness of the triclosan/copolymer/sodium fluoride (TCF-AF) dentifrice and a commercially available breath-freshening dentifrice containing fluoride for their ability to reduce volatile sulfur compounds (VSC) associated with oral malodor overnight. Methods:Following a 1-week washout period of brushing with a regular fluoride dentifrice, subjects reported to the clinical site without performing oral hygiene, eating or drinking in preparation for baseline breath sampling. Subjects were randomly assigned a test dentifrice and instructed to brush their teeth for 1 min, twice a day for 1 week. On the morning of day 8, subjects returned to the test site, having refrained from oral hygiene, eating and drinking, for overnight sampling. Following a second 1-week washout period, subjects repeated the same regimen, but now using the other test product. At each measurement, the level of breath VSC was evaluated using a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detector. Measurements were taken in duplicate, and then averaged. The levels of VSC were expressed as parts per billion (ppb) in mouth air. Results:At baseline, the mean breath VSC levels for the TCF-AF and breath-freshening dentifrice were 618 and 581 ppb respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the baseline levels. Overnight, the TCF-AF and the breath-freshening dentifrice reduced breath mean VSC levels to 267 and 521 ppb respectively. This gave a 56.7 and 10.2% reduction in VSC levels for these two products, respectively, compared with baseline. The reduction for the TCF-AF dentifrice was significantly different (P < 0.05%) from that of the breath-freshening dentifrice. Conclusion:The results of this randomized, double-blind, crossover study indicate that the TCF-AF dentifrice was significantly more effective than a commercially available breath-freshening dentifrice containing fluoride in reducing breath VSC associated with bad breath overnight.