Effect of oral care tablets on salivary and tongue microbiome

Tongue coating have been linked to aspiration pneumonia and halitosis. Oral care tablets has been shown to reduce tongue coating and volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs). We analyzed the effect of oral care tablets on salivary and tongue microbiome of ten healthy participants. Oral care tablets either did or did not contain actinidin, a cysteine protease extracted from kiwifruit, were used. The V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA was amplified and paired-end sequenced using Illumina Miseq. Three experiments were performed; no intervention (E2), protease tablet experiment (E3), and plain tablet experiment (E4). Saliva and tongue coating samples were collected on two consecutive days, D1 (before intervention) and D2 (after intervention), for tablet experiments (E3 and E4). After sample collection in the morning of D1, participants used oral care tablets 3 times on the day. There was no intervention during the control experiment (E2).