The tongue doesn't have to be coated for breath to be bad

Almost anyone knows that the main symptom of halitosis is the smell, which can vary in intensity and aroma but is always unpleasant. However, researchers in Brazil recently explored the idea that bad breath can be detected with the eyes, by looking for tongues with a white coating.

Almost anyone knows that the main symptom of halitosis is the smell, which can vary in intensity and aroma but is always unpleasant. However, researchers in Brazil recently explored the idea that bad breath can be detected with the eyes, by looking for tongues with a white coating.

Did their results pan out? The short answer is no, they didn't. Their report, which appears in the journal Revista Gaucha de Odontologia, found that there is no relationship between a white color at the back of the tongue and bad breath.

After analyzing the tongues of 80 people, the group determined that a white tongue coating is not a good indicator of oral odor, but not because people with white tongues don't have bad breath. No, instead the team found that people with white tongues and people without them both tend to have halitosis.

Using an oral care probiotic kit can help minimize bad breath in either case, since most funky breath is caused by bacteria on the tongue. Apparently, not all of these microbial colonies can be seen with the naked eye.