America's fresh breath pursuit creates flood of new products

Posted 8:26AM on Thursday 7th March 2002 ( 23 years ago )

ATLANTA - The oral health aisle at any well-stocked pharmacy has become an armory: all manner of mint, spray, gum and strip to battle whatever stench has befouled your breath. There are mints to mask a garlic-laden lunch, gum to whiten while it freshens, the oh-so-sexy-in-a-70s-way sprays, and, new on the scene, a gelatinous strip that sticks to the tongue, annihilating germs as it dissolves. The multibillion dollar fresh-breath market has boomed in recent years. Worldwide, consumers spend more on breath agents than on toothpaste, with the category's size now similar to skin, diaper and shampoo products, according to consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. "People in this country are more cosmetically oriented today," said Dr. Jacob Trager, a St. Petersburg, Fla., dentist who operates a telephone consulting practice. "How you look, deodorants, your breath -- it's a big thing. People just don't want to get turned off." And halitosis -- the clinical term for breath that offends -- can quickly turn off anyone. Its origins are way in the back of the mouth, where food and other gunk collects near the base of the tongue in a warm, damp spot well-suited for bacterial growth. Over time, the bacteria forms malevolent sulfurous compounds and, hence, stinky breath. Dentists say tongue scrapers are the best method of removing the debris -- many pharmacies now offer more than one model. Listerine has countered with PocketPaks, a jellified strip that dissolves on the tongue, which its manufacturer, Pfizer, credited with helping spur a 12 percent jump in fourth-quarter income in its consumer health care division. Pfizer expects PocketPaks sales to top $100 million in its first year, product manager Ellis Mass said. Martha Phillips, executive director of the Georgia Dental Association, lauded the tongue strips as "better than swishy Listerine. It's not as messy and it produces for me the same results." Others find the strips' texture disconcerting. "If something's just uncomfortable in your mouth and it doesn't feel right, you're not going to feel comfortable in a business setting," said Natalie Jones, a public relations representative from Atlanta. Last year, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. imported its Orbit breath gum from Europe to the U.S., rounding out its trio of gums Extra and Eclipse, the latter billed as "immediate breath control." Wrigley and P&G recently unveiled the first product in their new partnership -- a gum to whiten teeth while it's chewed. Also new to the United States is Colgate 2-in-1, a toothpaste-mouthwash liquid gel that Colgate-Palmolive Co. has sold in Europe for several years. Church & Dwight Co., the New Jersey company best known for Arm & Hammer baking soda, introduced a new line of "oral deodorization" products last summer. So, America must surely be one funky-mouth kind of place, right? "People's tastes in the U.S., they like stronger, spicier foods and experiment a little more and so they're looking for something a little stronger for their breath," Wrigley spokesman Christopher Perille said. Dentists aren't much impressed, grumbling that pharmaceutical giants have discovered a profitable niche in our vanity to sell us an ever-expanding array of products for an issue most of us could solve with an old-fashioned toothbrush. Halitosis "is 40 percent problem and 60 percent developing a neurosis to develop a market," said Dr. Peter Jacobsen, director of oral medicine at University of the Pacific Dental School in San Francisco. Historically, dentists have had different options for treating cavities and gum disease, but little to offer patients battling halitosis, said Bruce Nelson, Church & Dwight's director of clinical evaluations. "There was a need for the research community to give the dentist more of a means to address the problem," he said. As the research geared up, so has the marketing -- and prices that top $30 and $40 for some of the breath-gear kits of drops, sprays and liquids. The fresh-breath phenomenon has also spawned self-testing kits, including one from a New York company that assigns your breath a shade based on its potency. "My mother used to tell me that your mouth is the dirtiest thing in God's creation," said Ira Shuldman, national sales manager for Emjoi Inc., which introduced its O.K. 2 Kiss diagnostic kit last month. "Everything has gone in there from bacteria to utensils." The kit comes with a small pallet you drool in. Your saliva then reacts with the chemicals in the pallet, which produces a shade -- the lighter the shade, the better the breath. "I would say that people are more concerned today about how they're perceived by others," Shuldman said, noting that bad breath remains one of the few taboo topics in a country where virtually everything's open to frank discussion. "No one will ever tell you unless they're a good friend of yours." But a Los Angeles breath-products company will do it for you, sending an anonymous e-mail to a friend, gently offering to help with the problem. The company, California Breath Clinics, sends 20 to 50 notes per day.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/3/197809

America&#39;s fresh breath pursuit creates flood of new products

America's fresh breath pursuit creates flood of new products