How Sugar-Free Gum Can Help Your Patients Bring the Preventive Dental Experience Home

Sheri Doniger, DDS

About Author

While our role as dental practitioners is to ensure the oral health of our patients, our challenge is to motivate and maintain our patients’ momentum for preventive care for as long as four to six months between visits. The FDI defined oral health as “multi-faceted and includes the ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, swallow and convey a range of emotions through facial expressions with confidence and without pain, discomfort and disease of the craniofacial complex.” Oral health care begins with the first dental assessment and preventive care.

When a patient comes in for a preventive wellness appointment, we discuss oral self-care. As these appointments are usually months apart, the recall of our dental recommendations and advice may slip away as a distant memory. Six months is a long time to remember conversations or discussions, especially about dental flossing. Imagine if you were seeing your significant other at a six-month interval; you would need to re-learn the relationship again. The same goes with our patients. They hear what we say and they know what they need to do, but implementation may fall short as life factors get in the way.

One way to bring the preventive experience home is to ensure the visit is a positive experience for the patient. Suggesting self-care methods they may not be aware of, such as chewing sugar-free gum after a meal, will enhance the patient’s understanding of effective oral health. A conversation about the benefits of chewing sugar-free gum when discussing oral health will also naturally flow into a wider conversation about their oral care regimen and motivate patients to think about oral care between visits.

The benefits of chewing gum as both a complement to the recommended oral care regimen and an aide in reducing caries are two very strong points to consider when recommending adjuncts to oral hygiene beyond a toothbrush and interdental cleaners. Following up the preventive visit with a piece of gum to take home is also a valuable tool to reinforce the benefits of chewing sugar-free gum, especially for 20 minutes after eating. This connection may serve as a gentle reminder to keep oral care on the forefront of patients’ minds.

Here are some benefits of chewing sugar-free gum:

• Cleans teeth on-the-go, helping remove plaque and debris. Chewing sugar-free gum can remove debris in the mouth after a meal, and is a helpful alternative when a toothbrush is unavailable.

• Increases salivary protection by increasing saliva. Saliva is so important, not only for lubricating our teeth and oral environment, but also for our health. It contains substances such as antibacterial, antifungal and antimicrobial components (igA, igG, igM, mucin), enzymes (alpha-Amylase) and electrolytes (calcium, phosphate, sodium, bicarbonate, magnesium, potassium and iodine) for digestion, immunity, tooth restoration and oral hydration.^8,9 Increasing salivary flow also can help reduce the symptoms of xerostomia.⁴. Chewing sugar-free gum helps stimulate saliva flow, which can be beneficial for patients with xerostomia. Xerostomia is uncomfortable, and it may be a contributing factor to dental decay because of the dryness of the tissue and the tenacity of the cariogenic plaque present in the mouth.^3,4

• Maintains a healthy oral pH. Chewing sugar-free gum will help neutralize plaque acids and increase the pH of the oral environment because of its ability to increase bicarbonate ions in the saliva. This protects against dental decay (teeth begin to demineralize with a pH below 5.5).^1,5,6

• Aids in maintaining tooth mineralization. The saliva produced from chewing gum is both protective and restorative. Acid attacks on the tooth will occur when the pH is below 5.5. Chewing sugar-free gum will increase the volume of saliva. This decreases the amount of plaque acids present in the oral cavity, which may start the demineralization process on teeth. Additionally, this increase in saliva offers an increase in calcium and phosphate ions available for remineralization.^6,7

• May reduce caries incidence. By mechanical action of chewing gum and the bactericidal characteristics of increased saliva, sugar-free gum reduces the quantity of plaque, as well as the acid-forming ability of plaque. Chewing gum after meals will give a faster oral clearance of debris as well as increase the pH to a more neutral territory.^{1,2,7,10,11,12,13}

A new approach, combining the preventive wellness visit with a conversation about oral care and the benefits of sugar-free gum, has been developed for dental practitioners. Young Dental teamed up with Wrigley to enhance the preventive experience by creating new flavored prophy paste. Wrigley's Orbit Prophy Paste and Gum packs contain a single dose of prophy paste along with a piece of corresponding Orbit sugar-free gum. The prophy paste has a smooth, splatter-free consistency, effectively removes stain and is easily rinsed away. It is available in three flavors: Peppermint, Spearmint and Bubblemint.

Using flavored prophy paste with a highly specific flavor and scent will not only lead to a great conversation about the benefits of chewing sugar-free gum, it will also give our patients a pleasant experience during their preventive wellness visits and help them maintain their momentum for oral self-care between those visits.

Disclaimer: Sheri B. Doniger, DDS, a leading dental clinician, author, international educator, and consultant who practices dentistry in Lincolnwood, Ill, and frequently contributes to an array of dental publications on a variety of topics, works with the Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program. All opinions and facts gathered are her own.

References

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3. Mortazavi, H., Baharvand, M., Movahhedian. A., Mohammadi, M., Khodadoustan, A. Xerostomia Due to Systemic Disease: A Review of 20 Conditions and Mechanisms. Ann Med Health Sci Res. 2014 Jul-Aug; 4(4): 503–510. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4160670/
4. Villa, A., Connell, C.L., Abati, S. Diagnosis and Management of Xerostomia and Hyposalivation. Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2015; 11: 45–51. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278738/
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