Table 1.

Outcome measures and description of how they were assessed.

Outcome Measures	Description of How Outcome Measures Were Assessed
Winkel Tongue Coating Index (WTCI), anterior and posterior	The dorsum of the tongue was divided into six areas (three posterior, three anterior) and tongue coating was assessed in each sextant as follows; 0 = no coating, 1 = light coating, 2 = severe coating. The WTCI was obtained by adding all six scores, for a possible range of 0–6 for WTCI anterior and 0–6 for WTCI posterior.
The Rosenberg score, organoleptic measurement	The organoleptic measurement depends on a trained examiner that has demonstrated reliability in smelling halitosis. The operator, preferably blindfolded, sniffs the air exhaled from the mouth at a distance of 10 cm. For recording a scale of 5 values is used. The test is considered positive when the “hedonic” value assigned to breath exceeds the number 2. The scale includes the following values: 0 = no odor; 1 = doubtful presence of halitosis; 2 = slight odor but clearly notifiable; 3 = moderate halitosis; 4 = strong halitosis; 5 = very intense halitosis.
Gas chromatography score, measured with OralChroma™	Measure the molecular levels of the three major VSCs (hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulfide) in a sample of mouth air. The levels (measured in ppm) are reported in a diagram from low to high level. A cognitive threshold is individuated and levels are individuated as “more than” or “less than” the cognitive threshold.
BP (breath print) constructed by BIONOTE®	Individual Breathprint (BP) of a patient is represented with a radar plot; equiangular radii shape each radar plot, where each radius represents one of the 28 sensor responses. The radius length gives magnitude of each sensor response (expressed in Hz, because relative to a resonant frequency shoft of the quartz slice). The radar plot “profile” consists of a line drawn connecting the data values for each radius.