Suck on a sweet to fight tooth decay

By Mariam Digges

Suck on a sweet to fight tooth decay
Bacteria-fighting sweets could be the next defence against tooth decay.

The sugar-free candy works by preventing harmful decay-causing bugs from sticking to the surface of the teeth, causing erosion. Rather, the bad bacteria are swallowed through saliva before being flushed from the body.

Made using a friendly probiotic bacteria called lactobacillus paracasei, the sugar-free sweets release the friendly bacteria into the saliva, before sticking to the harmful mouth bacteria as they are sucked on. This prevents the bad bacteria from sticking to the tooth.

During a trial of 60 adults, split into two groups, 75 per cent of those given only one bacteria-loaded sweet had considerably lower levels of the harmful microbes in their mouth. The results were published in the journal Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins.

The boiled sweets were developed by German firm Organobalance GMBH and could be available as early as one to two years from now, targeting children to avoid the early onset of tooth decay.

 

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