From the mouths of moms

Can chewing gum help prevent moms from passing cavity-causing bacteria to their babies?

By Leslie Capo

Scientists at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans' School of Dentistry are trying to keep mothers from passing on more than love when they kiss their babies or taste their babies' food to make sure it's not too hot.

Streptococcus mutans ( S. mutans ), a strain of bacteria implicated in the development of cavities, is found in the mouths of just about everyone. The transmission of these bacteria in saliva from mothers to their babies sets up trouble, even before babies have teeth. Once these bacteria have hitchhiked on the spoon, they take up residence in babies' mouths, ready to spring into action when teeth do erupt.

Now, a research study funded by a recent $10.7 million federal grant to the dental school at LSUHSC is seeking to learn whether or not tooth decay can be prevented by inhibiting the transmission of these cavity-causing bacteria from mom to baby with an antimicrobial mouthwash-or even a chewing gum containing an artificial sweetener.

"Chlorhexidine and xylitol are two antimicrobial agents that have been used primarily outside of the United States for prevention," explains principal investigator Andretta Porter-Williams, DDS, assistant professor of operative dentistry and biomaterials. "In the United States, however, initial studies with either chlorhexidine or xylitol against S. mutans haven't shown a high degree of success. Because tooth decay is so prevalent, we're carefully evaluating these two agents-alone, and in combination-on the transmission of S. mutans from mother to child."

In a study supported by the National Institutes of Health's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) Program, researchers at LSUHSC are monitoring 250 mother/child pairs. Mothers are being randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: chlorhexidine mouthwash/placebo chewing gum, xylitol chewing gum/placebo mouthwash, or chlorhexidine mouthwash/xylitol chewing gum. Others are assigned to one of two control groups: placebo chewing gum/placebo mouthwash, or no treatment at all.

As the study progresses, the bacteria in both mothers' and babies' mouths will be examined and measured to determine whether or not transmission of the bacteria is being prevented, and to what degree.

"We hypothesize that a combination of xylitol and chlorhexidine will most effectively reduce the transmission of S. mutans from the mother to the child, and that this reduced transmission will result in the greatest decrease in the development of cavities in the child," says Porter-Williams.

"Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General," released in 2000, revealed that tooth decay is the single most common chronic childhood disease-five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. According to the report, more than 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental-related illness. Poor children suffer nearly 12 times more restricted-activity days than children from higher income families due to dental problems. Worse, pain and suffering due to untreated dental conditions can lead to problems in eating, speaking and attending to learning.