USE OF CHLORHEXIDINE CHEWING GUM SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES DENTAL PLAQUE-FORMATION COMPARED TO USE OF SIMILAR XYLITOL AND SORBITOL PRODUCTS

A DOUBLE-BLIND 3-TREATMENT CROSSOVER design employing a 6-day trial pe riod without mechanical oral hygiene measures was used to compare dent al plaque formation following use of chlorhexidine (CHX) acetate-, xyl itol-, and sorbitol-containing chewing gum. Fourteen dental students w ere assigned a random ordering of use of the chewing gum products and received professional tooth cleaning at the start of trial periods, Fo r each trial period, subjects were instructed to use 5 pieces of the u nlabeled chewing gum daily (containing 5.0 mg CHX acetate/piece; 0.8 g xylitol/piece; or 1.0 g sorbitol/piece). Two pieces of chewing gum we re used following each morning and evening meal and one piece followin g the noon meal. The subjects were instructed to use the products for 20 minutes at each occasion. A 7-day washout-period between trial peri ods was used. The Turesky modification of the Quigley and Hein index w as used to assess plaque formation. Differences between treatments wer e evaluated using a repeated measures ANOVA with Newman-Keuls multiple comparisons. The CHX-containing chewing gum showed significantly redu ced plaque values (0.7 +/- 0.4) compared to the sorbitol- (2.7 +/- 0.4 ; P < 0.01) and xylitol-product (1.7 +/- 0.3; P < 0.01), Furthermore, the CHX-product significantly reduced plaque levels compared to the st udy subjects' regular plaque control routines (1.3 +/- 0.4; P < 0.05), The xylitol-product exhibited significantly lower plaque-values than the sorbitol-product (P < 0.01). Our results suggest that regular use of CHX-containing chewing gum appears useful to control dental plaque formation.