Probably, there will be few people in the post-Soviet space who will not remember the annoying advertisement of chewing gum with xylitol and carbamide, which protects our teeth from morning till night.

So is xylitol really able to prevent tooth loss?.

Researchers from the University of Manchester (UK) say that the ability of xylitol - a common component of chewing gums, candies and toothpastes - to protect the teeth has not yet been proven.

After analyzing several large scientific works included in the Kokrein database, they came to the conclusion that there is insufficient evidence of the protective effect of xylitol.

The lead author of the analysis, Dr. Philip Riley, a member of the School of Stomatology at Manchester University and a representative of the Cochrane Oral Health Group, said verbatim: "The data we have does not allow us to state that xylitol is able to prevent tooth loss".

Some manufacturers still claim that xylitol really does it. There were suggestions that the addition of xylitol to toothpastes and chewing gum leads to the death of bacteria and prevents tooth decay - a disease that affects up to 90% of children and more than half of adults around the world.

Poor quality of scientific data.

In the course of their work, Manchester scientists searched for randomized controlled trials that examined the effect of xylitol products on the formation of carious cavities in children and adults. A total of 10 studies were included in the analysis, involving a total of about 6,000 people from different countries.

Their goal was to combine these data and analyze them in such a way as if they were all obtained in one study. This type of analysis, called meta-analysis, is often used in cases where scientists have a large amount of disparate data.

But a meta-analysis can be carried out only when these most disparate data were obtained as a result of studies having a similar compatible design. Therefore, in our case, Dr. Reilly's group was able to combine only two studies that examined the effect of toothpaste and xylitol on the health of teeth in 4,200 children from Costa Rica. Both were conducted by the same team and by the same method.

The authors concluded that in children who use xylitol paste for 3 years, the probability of tooth loss is reduced by an average of 13%, but they called the quality of the data low. When they analyzed other studies on syrup, candies and xylitol tablets, no effect was found on the condition of the teeth.

Riley says: "We were particularly surprised to find that there is no evidence of a positive effect of chewing gum with xylitol.

Limited data on the effectiveness of toothpastes with xylitol in children were of poor quality, and they can only be applied to a specific population ".

Studies have shown no harm to xylitol.

The authors emphasize that their analysis did not reveal any evidence of side effects of xylitol, such as bloating, diarrhea and the like. Riley believes that with the proper use of these products, such effects are extremely unlikely, and hopes that these fears will be dispelled in future studies.

medbe. en.

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