Beating Bad Breath Behind the Face Mask and Bacteria 

in the Mouth with Probiotics

[Korea JoongAng Daily] 08.19.2020

Beating Bad Breath Behind the Face Mask with Probiotics

Oral probiotics are recently drawing our attention as a means of preventing and managing oral diseases such as periodontal disease, dental caries, and halitosis. There are approximately 700 species of bacteria, or 10 billion bacteria living in your mouth. However, poor dental health and eating habits, the use of mouthwash full of chemicals, the misuse of antibiotics, and such destroy the balance between harmful and beneficial bacteria in the mouth, thereby causing various oral diseases.

A dry mouth and bad breath in the morning are also caused by bacteria proliferated overnight. Some harmful bacteria survive from the nighttime brush, proliferate in the deeper side of oral cavity, and produce volatile sulphur compounds(VSC) which are mostly to blame for bad breath. Probiotics, live organisms, that promote oral health settle in the mouth, trigger the proliferation of beneficial bacteria, detect the bacteria which cause various oral health conditions such as periodontal diseases, dental caries, and halitosis, and inhibit the activities of such pathogenic bacteria. Probiotics work not just to treat the symptoms of oral conditions, but to restore the balance of oral bacteria, thereby ensuring inherently better oral health.

OraCMU, probiotic bacteria isolated from the mouth of Korean person, inhibiting harmful bacteria(Fn)

Many researchers are actively being involved in research on the use of probiotics to fight periodontal disease. According to the information obtained from the industry concerned on August 19, the one who first started to research into this area was the research team led by Dr. Oh Jong-Suk of the Medical School at Chonnam National University. Dr. Oh isolated 1,640 probiotic strains from the saliva of 460 Korean children with healthy mouth. Among those probiotics strains, Dr. Oh finally selected 4 Weissella cibaria strains, oraCMU, oraCMS1, oraCMS2, and oraCMS3, which have excellent functions in safety, oral colonization, and control of harmful bacteria. These 4 probiotic strains are known as the first and the only probiotic strains developed in Korea. They are also highly rated as superior probiotics for oral health in terms of functions in oral colonization, control of harmful bacteria, and such, compared with probiotics provided by foreign companies. 

A Korean company has started to make extraordinary efforts to continue the research team’s studies and turned the team’s findings into a business. The name of this company is OraPharm Inc. To continue researches in a highly professional way, OraPharm has employed core members of the research team led by Dr. Oh and opened a research institute of its own which researches into probiotics for oral health. Furthermore, the company has been investigating the effects of probiotics on periodontal diseases, dental caries, and halitosis by conducting multiple clinical and preclinical trials using ‘oraCMU’ and ‘oraCMS1’. OraPharm has published 21 papers and invested heavily in research activities related to oral probiotics. The company obtained multiple Korean and overseas patents and, in 2017, it received a NET(New Excellent Technology) certificate from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in recognition of its technical prowess at curing halitosis.  

“Everyone has oral health conditions even though they take care of their mouth. It is because they couldn’t eliminate the root cause of the proliferation of harmful bacteria. It is important to increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the oral cavity and maintain the natural balance of bacteria. The goal of studies that investigate oral probiotics is not to treat oral diseases, but to get to the bottom of oral problems and to eliminate root causes of such problems,” Yoon Eun-Seop, the CEO of OraPharm Inc., said. Two probiotics that promote oral health have been made available on the market by OraPharm. ‘OraDenti’ inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria in the mouth and triggers the proliferation of beneficial bacteria. ‘Green Breath’, however, gets rid of harmful bacteria that cause bad breath.

Global research on oral probiotics has been on the boil since the early 2000s. In recent years, efforts have been made to turn the findings of research into business. Currently, more than 100 probiotic products, which promote oral health, from approximately 30 countries including the U.S., European countries, and Japan are available on the market and are becoming popular among the public. Korean probiotics market has been developing steadily. 

Original Source: Korea JoongAng Daily(https://bit.ly/2l1eSOJ)