NOW Foods Supplements, OralBiotic™, Developed for Adults & Children, Strain Verified, 60 Lozenges

I have terrible morning breath and my youngest son is prone to cavities so my dentist suggested taking an oral probiotic. So I went and bought one of every brand I could find and now everyone in the family picks one of these 6 to take daily. I wish I could rate one significantly higher than the other, they all seem to help with bad breath and I am crossing my fingers that they will help with my son's cavities, but it really comes down to a matter of what flavor you like and if you will be turned off by a chalky flavor. I feel like the Nature's Plus, both the adult and child versions, get the most bang for your buck, but the Now brand definitely taste the best. Now Foods Oralbiotic Blis K12, 60-Count - This one is the favorite of my youngest son, this is actually the only flavor he will take, it is not as chalky as the rest and has a natural strawberry flavor. Nature's Plus - Childrens - Animal Parade Tooth Fairy 90 - This brand my oldest son's favorite, he gets to pick out a new animal shape every day and he finds the vanilla flavor to be pleasant. Nature's Plus Adult's Dental Care Probiotic Lozenges Peppermint -- 60 Lozenges - This one is my favorite, it is nice and minty and leaves your mouth with a just brushed feeling. EvoraPlus Probiotic Mints - Box of 30 Mints - 10001000 - This one is my second favorite, also minty, but not does not leave that clean feeling in your mouth, but does help with bad breath. Oral Probiotic Formula Strawberry Flavor 30 Chwbls - This one works but the fruit flavor tastes very strange, no one likes it, I take one just to get them used up. And Jarrow Formulas Jarro-Dophilus Oral Probiotic Lozenge, 8 Count - This one also works for bad breath but also tastes a little off. Update: March 3, 2013 After discovering that these really do work I ordered the rest of the year's supply because these are supposed to be refrigerated and I imagine the shipping to my house in Florida is going to wipe out some of those good probiotics if I got this in the heat of the summer.

This is THE BEST product I have ever purchased for my oral health. I suffered from tonsil stones and resulting bad breath for years. Since I started using this product(in conjunction with flossing and brushing of course), my tonsil stones and bad breath has vanished. This had been a MAJOR source of insecurity and embarrassment and I had tried all kinds of things. Everything just made it worse. This stuff WORKS. Try it, you wont be disappointed. 1/11/14 Update. I was on here leaving feedback when I saw this review I posted last year. It's been about a year or so since I have started using this product and I have to say it still works. In fact my mouth and gums are healthier than ever(according to my dental hygienist), and my bad breath(very bad breath) is now totally normal! No more embarrassment being in a car with someone, I can be around other people with confidence. My fiancée doesn't turn the other way laying down in bed! I love this product and highly recommend it. I am not the type of person to use 'natural' products but after being so desperate for a solution to my bad breath and tonsil stones, I tried this and it actually worked! I have to add though that I also continue take care of my teeth and gums(brush and floss). However, I used to brush my teeth 3-7 times a day AND I flossed and I still had horrible breath 15 minutes later and still got tonsil stones. This product taken once in the am and once in the pm with brushing and flossing has been the cure I was looking for for years! 1/7/15 I was on here ordering it and noticed the review. Still works amazingly well. This product has been nothing short of miraculous. I couldn't live without it. I still use it the same way and my breath is perfect. I don't ever worry about my breath anymore. What a gift.

It's good to avoid candida in the mouth, but I experienced better brands before this one. Not bad, but not the best.,

I began to look for some kind of oral probiotic initially for my son. He seems to be prone to tooth decay despite our healthy diet and good brushing habits. I came upon the theory that the culprit may be that "bad bacteria" have set up camp permanently in the mouth, so no matter how much you brush, it won't be enough. My son also had a bad breath, most of the time and especially in the morning. I previously got him a tongue scraper and that helped somewhat with the breath, but now that I started him on this as well as, a few times a day initially and now once a day at night, he has absolutely no bad breath at all anymore. I had gotten the GUM Periobalance lozenges for myself in the hopes that it would help me with what feels like bacteria attacking my gums. I didn't notice a huge impact from those. I would have to regularly rinse with Lysterine to keep my gums feeling okay. Out of curiosity, I started trying this Oral Biotic as well (of course, you should wait a bit after using any mouth rise so that the antibacterial of the mouth wash doesn't just wipe out the probiotic). And my gums feel *so* much better. One note is that YOU NEED TO REFRIGERATE THEM upon receipt or after opening. I didn't realize this until I saw this in other reviews. I would recommend getting them with some kind of expedited shipping (like Amazon Prime) and not ordering them if it's super hot weather. I actually just stocked up on these so that I won't have to order these in the summer. The taste is totally palatable. My kids are super picky and will take these without complaining.

Edit: 2/22/15 I though I'd give an updated review on this. I don't use this for fresh breath, but to try to prevent myself from getting colds. I've been taking blisk12 for almost a year now. I used to catch a cold about four times a year, basically whenever the weather changes and my roommates get sick. Since taking this, however, that has stopped being the case. I went between the swanson one and the NOW one, whichever is cheaper when I need another bottle. Much as I love swanson (I take their ultimate probiotic every day) however I do like that this NOW foods one is straight up Blisk12-- you can't tell from a swansons bottle how much of the proprietary formula is blisk12 or not. If I were starting off, I would take this once a day for about 1-2 weeks to build up the colony, then at least once a week for maintenance. I take public transportation to work, and I think this is a pretty good preventative method from catching something from the people on the bus. If, however, someone I live with is sick, then I'd take it multiple times a day since the risk of getting sick is higher, given shared utensils, living space, etc. This past cold season has been the ultimate test for me of this product (I used this one this season, not swanson.) My roomies both got sick, and went through two rounds of colds. I was unscathed by both. Now they're mostly recovered, but still coughing. I think since they were mostly better, I let down my guard last week and wasn't as vigilant about taking this. I also went out with one of my recovering roommates and she drank from my water glass since the waiter was slow. Big mistake! I didn't think anything of it, but as my sister the microbiologist major said, if you're still coughing, you're still contagious. Ugh. The next morning, I woke up with a mild cough and was pretty unhappy since it had been almost a year since I has gone through a cold. I ate 2 cloves of raw garlic in the morning, then took three of these in succession, spitting out phlegm in between. If you're wondering, I figured spitting got out both the bad germs and some of this product. My urge to cough (that reflex you feel) went away, but my throat still didn't feel great. I drank green tea at work, came home, and ate another piece of raw garlic, napped, took a blisk12, drank ginger tea, had some kefir, ate some mandarins, took another one of these, and went to bed early. The next day I was back to being fine. My theory is that the raw garlic helped take out some of the bad germs, and this helped "take up the space" that was left, making it harder for the bad bacteria to grow. I don't know if it's the placebo effect or not, but it works for me, so I'll keep taking it. There are some studies on this which suggests it's more than a placebo--you can read up on: look up pubmed dot gov and type in blisk12 in the search bar. Small studies, so maybe it's placebo, but it's nice not being sick, so whatever. Remember that as a supplement it's really supposed to be more useful as a preventative measure than something to actually cure a cold, but I found that it really helped me when I felt like I was coming down with something. My roommates are still coughing so I'm back to taking this multiple times a day... ------original review----- If you want something a little sweeter and has L. reuteri, take Swansons. If you want straight up only BlisK12, take this. A little chalky but effective.

I used these lozenges for 16 days before connecting my side effects to them. I took 2 lozenges, at least twice a day, but infrequently three times. Somewhere around day 13 or so I started experiencing little flashes of pain on various parts of my tongue. I thoroughly examined my tongue, and it was perfectly normal in those areas. No bumps. No spots. No ulcers. Not even an enlarged taste bud. Just pain, usually as I was eating, even soft foods. I am 65 y/o and have never experienced this sensation, which led me to question what I may have recently added to my diet or supplements. I believe it was due to taking two lozenges directly before bed, after brushing my teeth, and not drinking anything after they dissolved. I wanted the probiotics to have an optimum opportunity to work. They were always fully dissolved before sleep, but I believe all those probiotics sat on my tongue for several hours for 16 nights and caused this hypersensitive side effect. (I didn't dissolve the lozenges between my gums, I kept them on my tongue.) Furthermore, there are several accounts in these reviews of "mouth problems" and "mouth ulcers"/sores", with one person experiencing EIGHT ulcers on her front gums at one time. Ouch! Sore throats are probably the most frequently reported side effect in these reviews, with one person even having a visible sore on his/her uvula. Double ouch!

These help restock the mouth with good bacteria and they cost much less than the other brands sold on Amazon. But they get sticky wet, and then clump together -- much worse than any of the (several) other brands I have tried. In fact I've had no similar problem with any other brand. There is something unique about the Now OralBiotics' chemical composition that quickly attracts humidity from the air. It doesn't help that the cap on the bottle only snaps closed and doesn't tighten securely like the ones that twist on and off. Neither does it help to put a ball of cotton inside the container. That just resulted in the probiotic tablets enseparably adhering to the cotton. It is impossible to pull all the cotton strands off. Now, after the tablet dissolves in my mouth I must spit a tiny ball of cotton out. The berry flavor taste is very artificial, but is tolerable. Other brands taste better. This product also contains milk, which is something else the other brands don't have. If you are lactose intolerant that's yet another reason to avoid this product. The price is good, but I won't be buying these again.

Whenever I feel a cold coming on, I take one or two at night, and the next day I am fine!