Efficacy of Probiotic and Herbal Chewing Gums on Salivary pH in 6-11 years age group Children: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Abstract

Introduction: Saliva is a crucial diagnostic tool to evaluate oral health. Chewing sugar-free gum is an effective method to increase salivary flow and can also be employed a medium for the administration of medicinal ingredients. Aim: To evaluate and compare the effect of chewing xylitol, herbal and probiotic chewing gums on salivary acidogenicity levels. Materials and Methods: A single centre, randomised, double blind, parallel clinical trial was conducted on 60 children aged between 6-11 years. Baseline salivary pH was recorded With the pH meter and then the participants were asked to consume chocolate and salivary pH was recorded at an interval of 5, 30, and 60 minutes. Then children were randomly allocated to Group A-Xylitol chewing gum (control group, n=20), Group B-Herbal chewing gum (n=20), and Group C-Probiotic chewing gum (n=20) and instructed to chew gum according to their assigned group and salivary pH was again recorded at an interval of 5, 30, and 60 minutes. The change in salivary pH was evaluated using ANOVA and Post hoc Bonferroni test. Results: The mean age of the study population was 9.23±1.38 years. Statistically significant (p<0.001) increase in pH was recorded post consumption of probiotic, xylitol and herbal chewing gums and the mean salivary pH values recorded at 60 minutes were 7.20±0.21, 7.01±0.23 and 6.43±0.22, respectively. Conclusion: The observations of the study showed that xylitol, herbal and probiotic chewing gums reversed the fall in salivary pH after an acidogenic challenge with probiotic being better among the three groups.