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Clin Oral Invest (2013) 17:785791
DOI 10.1007/s00784-012-0774-5
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Six months of high-dose xylitol in high-risk caries subjectsa 2-year randomised, clinical trial
Guglielmo Campus & Maria Grazia Cagetti &
Silvana Sale & Massimo Petruzzi & Giuliana Solinas &
Laura Strohmenger & Peter Lingstrm
Received: 21 October 2011 /Accepted: 14 June 2012 /Published online: 13 July 2012 # The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
AbstractObjectives The hypothesis was that the daily use of a high dose of a xylitol chewing gum for 6 months would reduce the increment of decayed permanent first molar surfaces (D6S) in high-risk schoolchildren after 2 years.
Methods In this randomised, clinical trial, 204 schoolchildren with a high caries risk were assigned to two experimental groups, xylitol and non-xylitol. Caries status, salivary mutans streptococci, and lactobacilli were reevaluated 2 years later in 74 xylitol-treated and 83 nonxylitol-treated schoolchildren. Differences in mean D6S
between groups registered at baseline and at follow-up were evaluated using the nonparametric MannWhitney U test.
Results Outcome was the development of detectable carious lesions initial (D1D2) and manifest (D3) in the permanent first molars. In the xylitol group, the difference in proportion of children with decayed first permanent molars at baseline and follow-up was 1.43 % for manifest lesion and 2.86 % for initial lesions; while in the non-xylitol group was10.26 % (p<0.01) and 16.66 % (p<0.01), respectively. A statistically significant difference regarding means was also observed in the non-xylitol group: the D6S for manifest lesion was 0.18 (p00.03) and 0.67 (p00.02) for initial lesion.
Conclusion The use of a chewing gum containing a high dose of xylitol for a period of 6 months has been shown to produce a long-term effect on caries development in high caries-risk children.
Clinical relevance A school-based preventive programme based on 6 months administration of a high dose of xylitol via chewing gum proved to be efficacious in controlling caries increment in high-risk children.
Keywords Caries . Xylitol . Chewing gum . School-based . Randomised, controlled, clinical trial
Introduction
Modern concepts regard caries as an interaction between genetic and environmental factors, where biological, social, behavioural and psychological factors are expressed in a highly complex interactive manner with the dental biofilm as the key element [1]. Different...