Efeito de enxaguatórios à base de zinco na halitose intraoral: uma revisão narrativa

Abstract

Intraoral halitosis is caused by the sulfur compounds, gases that are produced due to degradation of organic matter, such as tongue coating, by anaerobic bacteria present in the oral cavity. The treatment for halitosis must be initiated from oral hygiene instruction also teaching how to do tongue scraping which is the main mechanical method to remove the tongue coating, and additionally mouthwashes can be indicated as a chemical control. Chlorhexidine is considered the gold standard antimicrobial agent for oral use, but his side effects such as dysgeusia and tooth staining indicate the need of a new substance as an option for the treatment of halitosis, and new clinical studies analyzing the action of zinc ions have shown promising results. This paper has the goal to answer, based on published clinical studies and “in vitro” experiments, if the use of zinc-based mouthwashes is effective in reducing intraoral halitosis. This is a narrative literature review in which scientific articles and other academic works were collected in the electronic databases PubMed, SciELO and MEDLINE, from 2010 to 2023, fully available in the databases and in Portuguese and English. The researches were commanded by the keywords: halitosis, mouthwashes, zinc and sulfur compounds. All articles that did not fit the inclusion criteria were excluded from the selection. 10 clinical trials and 1 “in vitro” experiment were selected, which were gathered in a table to summarize the findings. It was concluded from the review of these studies that zinc was effective in reducing CSVs, either directly acting in reducing the volatilization of these gases or through its antimicrobial action.