A recent study suggests that sugar-free lollipops containing licorice root extract significantly reduce bacteria that cause tooth decay, specifically in high-risk preschool children.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-Mich; Ann Arbor, MI, USA) conducted a pilot study to determine the clinical effect of a simple herbal caries-prevention protocol aimed at reduction of Streptococcus mutans (SM) in young children in a preschool setting. Supervised herbal lollipops were given twice daily for 3 weeks. Species-specific monoclonal antibody testing of saliva provided individual SM counts, and the children were grouped into high, medium, and low caries-risk using baseline SM-levels as risk indicator. Baseline, during intervention, and nine weeks post-intervention SM levels were then compared.

The results showed that high-risk children had the steepest early decrease in mean SM. At the end of the follow-up period, the decrease moved the high-risk group down to moderate-risk level, with the high-risk children showing a decrease in mean SM percentage not seen in other groups; the decrease reached a nadir 22-days post-intervention, when SM levels stabilized and then began to rebound. The results demonstrated that twice-daily use of herbal lollipop could significantly reduce both number and relative percent of SM in high-risk children. The study was published in the December 2010 issue of the European Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

“This study is important not only for dental caries prevention research, but also demonstrates the feasibility of a classroom protocol using a unique delivery system suitable for young children,” said lead author Jacqueline Tallman, RDH, BSc, MPA, of the U-Mich school of dentistry. “Early prevention is key for lifetime oral health and effective innovative protocols are needed.”

“The use of the licorice root lollipops is an ideal approach as it will stop the transfer and implantation of the bacteria that cause dental decay from mothers to their infants and toddlers,” said Martin Curzon, editor-in-chief of the European Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. “It also has the merit of being a low cost-high impact public dental health measure.”

The lollipops are manufactured by Dr. John's Candies (Grand Rapids, MI, USA); the orange-flavored, sugarless lollipops contain extract of licorice root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis), which targets and is thought to kill primary SM, which is responsible for tooth decay.

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