Dental health method employing chewing gum

摘要

A method for promoting dental health in which chewing gum is employed to alter the oral environment to provide natural resistance to dental caries. The method involves chewing a sugarless gum which contains a relatively insoluble, hydrophobic food-grade organic acid, preferably adipic acid. Chewing of the gum gradually releases the acid from the gum at a desirably linear rate over a period of approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Release of the acid from the gum into the mouth stimulates an increase in salivary flow rate greater than that experienced during chewing a non-acidulated chewing gum, resulting in increases in salivary electrolytes and basic proteins and in the concentration of natural salivary bicarbonate to a level in excess of that necessary to neutralize the acidulant being released from the gum. The excess of natural salivary bicarbonate raises the salivary pH and plaque pH and neutralizes microbially-formed lactic acid responsible for tooth demineralization and resultant dental caries.