It has been customary to think that in a
dentifrice only a few of its ingredients would be active and have clinically significant effects on
dental caries,
oral hygiene, and the levels of caries-inducive microorganisms or harmful plaque metabolic products. Therefore, most of the emphasis has been placed on the type of
fluorine compounds, abrasives, or similar
dentifrice ingredients. This study shows that such common
dentifrice components as the
humectants, which contribute to the texture, rheologic characteristics, and shelf life of the product, also may affect the type of
dental plaque grown on the tooth surfaces between
toothbrushings or during long-term neglect of
toothbrushing or of
oral hygiene. Commonly used
humectants include
sorbitol, a
sugar alcohol of the
hexitol type, which is used often in sugarless candies. This study showed that when
sorbitol in a
dentifrice was replaced by
xylitol, a
sugar alcohol of the pentitol type, the
dental plaque of human subjects contained more
ammonia and significantly less
bacterial polysaccharides. It is accepted generally that
ammonia neutralizes plaque
acids and that
bacterial polysaccharides are involved in promoting caries.
Xylitol-containing
dentifrice also reduced the saliva levels of S mutans. The results further indicated that if
sorbitol and
xylitol could be compared in a short-term
dentifrice study that relied on subjective and coarse plaque determinations only, no differences between those
dentifrices would be found necessarily. To demonstrate the differences between the experimental
dentifrices used in this study, it was necessary to analyze specific plaque components and the salivary levels of S mutans.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)