DIFFERENCES IN HALITOSIS SCORES BEFORE & AFTER GARGLING MORINGA LEAF SOLUTION (MORINGA OLEIFERA)

Abstract

BACKGROUND : Halitosis or bad breath is a common term used for unpleasant odors caused by systemic and oral conditions due to the decay of food residues, which leads to the formation of gram-negative bacteria that produce halitosis. Several ways to overcome halitosis include conventional methods and alternative methods. The conventional method is to address halitosis by rinsing with substances containing antiseptics. Recently, the use of herbal ingredients as an alternative in treating diseases has gained attention. This is due to the relatively safer nature of herbal materials compared to chemical substances. One way to prevent and eliminate halitosis is by using traditional methods. One of them is the use of moringa leaves, which contain phytochemicals. METHOD : The samples are 165 who were students of SMP YP-PGRI Disamakan Makassar. This type of research is a quasi- experimental study, and the research design used is a one-group pre-test – post-test design. In this study, halitosis was measured using a Breath Checker device, which provides a halitosis index score with an interpretation ranging from 0 to 5, starting from no odor to very strong halitosis." RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Based on the T-test results, a p-value of 0.00 was obtained, which was smaller than 0.05 (p-value < 0.05). This indicates that there was a significant change in the halitosis index score before and after gargling with Moringa leaf solution. Moringa leaves are a plant whose nutritional content and uses have been extensively studied. Moringa leaves are very rich in nutrients so they can be used as an alternative mouthwash to overcome halitosis. CONCLUSION : The results of this study show that the halitosis scores before rinsing with moringa leaf boiled water among the students of SMP YP PGRI Disamakan Makassar were mostly very strong and also that the difference in halitosis scores before and after rinsing with moringa leaf solution water among the students was proven to be significant.