Probiotic Chewing Tablets Improve Oral Health in Children

by | Jun 15, 2016 | 2015, Infant and Children's Health, Oral Health, Probiotics

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Of the 110 (2-3) year old children, those who chewed daily a tablet containing 3 strains of probiotic bacteria for one year had an overall significant 53% reduced risk of developing cavities compared to the control.

Dental cavities in children are a “serious and costly health condition” (1). They are the most common chronic disease of children between the ages of 6 and 19 years (2), affecting nearly 1 in 5 children (3).   Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations include twice daily brushing and “wise food choices” (3), finding other home methods to improve dental health are needed (4).

Now a new study (5) suggests that probiotics, the “good” bacteria that bestow numerous health benefits (6) and which have shown potential for oral health (7, 8), may be a benefit to children. The study involved 110 healthy children between the ages of 2 and 3. They received either 1 chewing tablet per day containing 1 billion colony-forming units of three strains of live bacteria (S. uberis, S. oralis, S. rattus = 56 children) or a placebo tablet (54 children) for one year.

Parents were instructed to brush the teeth of their children twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and 12 randomly selected 2-year old children underwent dental examinations by two different clinicians to assess oral health.

After one year, while the researchers saw no statistical difference after 1 year between the 2 groups regarding the prevalence of visible plaque (p > 0.05) or bleeding-on brushing (p > 0.05), a measure of dental cavity progression called “caries increment” was “significantly lower in the test group when compared with the placebo group.” Specifically, those in the probiotic group had a carie increment of 0.2 (meaning they were 20% closer to forming a new cavity) while those in the placebo group had a carie increment of 0.8 (meaning they were 80% closer to forming a new cavity) (p < 0.05). This led to an overall 53% reduced risk of forming cavities with the probiotic treatment than the placebo group (p < 0.05). No side effects were reported in either group.

When suggesting a mechanism for how probiotic supplementation improved dental health, the researchers pointed to the ability of probiotics to stimulate the production of an anti-bacterial protein called bacteriocin (9) while also preventing the growth of harmful oral bacteria S. oralis and S. uberis (10) as well as mutans streptococci (11).

For the researchers, “early childhood caries development could be reduced through administration of these probiotic chewing tablets as adjunct to daily use of fluoride toothpaste in preschool children” and that “Further studies on a possible dose-response relationship seem justified.”

Source: Hedayati-Hajikand et al 2015. Effect of probiotic chewing tablets on earlychildhood caries – a randomized controlled trial. BMC Oral Health (2015) 15:112  DOI 10.1186/s12903-015-0096-5  

© 2015 Hedayati-Hajikand et al. Open Access Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted June 14 2016.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.

References:

  1. Tinanoff N, Reisine S. Update on early childhood caries since the Surgeon General’s Report. Acad Pediatr. 2009;9:396–403.
  2. “Hygiene-related Diseases” posted on the CDC website
  3. “Untreated Dental Caries (Cavities) in Children Ages 2-19, United States” posted on the CDC website
  4. Chou R, Cantor A, Zakher B, Mitchell JP, Pappas M. Preventing dental caries in children <5 years: systematic review updating USPSTF recommendation. Pediatrics. 2013;132:332–50
  5. Hedayati-Hajikand T. Effect of probiotic chewing tablets on early childhood caries–a randomized controlled trial. BMC Oral Health. 2015 Sep 24;15(1):112. doi: 10.1186/s12903-015-0096-5
  6. Sanders ME. Probiotics: definition, sources, selection, and uses. Clin Infect Dis. 2008;46 Suppl 2:S58–61
  7. Teughels W, Van Essche M, Sliepen I, Quirynen M. Probiotics and oral health care. Periodontol 2000. 2008;48:111–47.
  8. Twetman S, Keller MK. Probiotics for caries prevention and control. Adv Dent Res. 2012;24:98–102
  9. Twetman S, Keller MK. Probiotics for caries prevention and control. Adv Dent Res. 2012;24:98–102
  10. Hillman JD, McDonell E, Cramm T, Hillman CH, Zahradnik RT. A spontaneous lactate dehydrogenase deficient mutant of Streptococcus rattus for use as a probiotic in the prevention of dental caries. J Appl Microbiol. 2009;107:1551–8.
  11. Cagetti MG, Mastroberardino S, Milia E, Cocco F, Lingström P, Campus G. The use of probiotic strains in caries prevention: a systematic review. Nutrients. 2013;5:2530–50.