Plaque Removal by Sugarless Chewing Gums Following Toothbrushing

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of 5 commercially-available sugarfree chewing gums in aiding dental plaque removal following a one-time use immediately after toothbrushing versus a no-gum control.

Methods: 240 subjects with 24-hour plaque were scored for baseline plaque (MQH) and randomized into 6 groups. Under supervision, the groups first brushed their teeth 1 minute and were rescored for “toothbrush clean” plaque levels. Next they chewed Orbit® Complete Spearmint (SP), Peppermint (PP), Strong Mint (SM), Fresh Mint (FM), Freedent® Supermint (FS) or no gum (NG) under supervision for 20 minutes and were again scored for plaque. Data were statistically analyzed using ANCOVA.

Results: All 6 groups (n=40/group) were well balanced consisting of 1/3 males, 2/3 females, and approximately 40 years average age. Initial toothbrushing significantly (p<0.05) reduced baseline MQH plaque scores from 3.54, 3.40, 3.40, 3.51, 3.48, 3.42 for the SP, PP, SM, FM, FS, and NG groups, respectively, to 2.92, 2.79, 2.75, 2.82, 2.83, and 2.85, respectively. There were no significant differences between groups regarding the post-brushing “toothbrush clean” plaque scores. Subsequent gum chewing for 20 min. resulted in final plaque scores of 2.81, 2.68, 2.65, 2.70, 2.70, and 2.83 for the SP, PP, SM, FM, FS, and NG groups, respectively. The corresponding plaque reduction scores (mean ±s.d.) were 0.11 ±0.11, 0.12 ±0.12, 0.10 ±0.13, 0.12 ±0.15, 0.12 ±0.11, and 0.02 ±0.10 for the SP, PP, SM, FM, FS, and NG groups, respectively. All 5 chewing gums significantly (p<0.05) removed approximately 4% more plaque from the surfaces of “toothbrush clean” teeth and were significantly more effective than the no-gum control.

Conclusion: Use of commecially-available, sugarfree chewing gums immediately after toothbrushing proved capable of removing significant amounts of additional dental plaque from the teeth.

[Supported by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company]