News

To celebrate World Oral Health Day 2024 – a key opportunity to empower people with the knowledge, tools and confidence to maintain good oral health – the Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program launched a campaign to highlight that good oral health is an essential component of overall wellbeing. Our mouths are the gateway to our bodies, and taking care of our mouth is a fundamental step towards ensuring positive health and wellbeing. This helps us create those special moments of everyday happiness that put smiles on our faces and give us treasured memories with those we love.

Sadly, however, more than 3.5 billion people are affected by some kind of oral health problem. This can impact quality of life, physical and mental wellbeing. For example, if we feel self-conscious about the state of our mouth, we may be disinclined to socialize, leading to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Oral discomfort or pain can also limit our consumption of healthier food, disrupting our ability to consume the nutrients our bodies need. Our WOHD 2024 campaign sought to highlight this and remind people to enjoy moments of everyday happiness by taking care of their teeth and feeling fantastic. It was also a great opportunity to highlight the importance of a complete oral hygiene routine – including chewing sugar-free gum after meals and snacks. 

To learn more about World Oral Health Day, please click here.

The Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program’s ‘Share a Smile’ campaign in Poland has been cited as “best practice” by FDI World Dental Federation in a new report on the role the private sector can play in achieving oral health goals.

‘Share a Smile’ is a program focused on providing free dental checks and oral health education in schools in Poland, a country with a very high prevalence of oral health conditions among children. The report notes that ‘Share a Smile’ “serves as illustration of positive outcomes that can be reached when the public sector is willing to engage in partnerships and recognizes the multifaceted role that the private sector can play, not only as a funding source but also as a valuable source of expertise, including in communication.” It also emphasizes that chewing sugar-free gum has “proven oral health benefits”.

The report is intended to highlight ways industry actors can contribute to reducing the burden of oral disease globally. It was launched this week at the International Association of Dental Research Congress in New Orleans, with Michael Dodds, BDS PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Science & Technology, representing the Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program.

The Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program joined more than 10,000 attendees at FDI World Dental Congress in Sydney, Australia in September to raise awareness of the oral health benefits of chewing sugar-free gum among the dental community and to hand out free samples of our sugar-free gum products! Over four days at the conference we met with hundreds of dentists, hygienists, researchers, academics and others, sharing information about our work to promote better oral healthcare and the role sugar-free gum can play in protecting teeth and gums.

In addition, Dr. Mike Dodds, BDS PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Science & Technology at Mars Wrigley, gave two addresses to attendees, one focusing on the role of chewing gum stimulated saliva in primary caries prevention, and another on the relationship between diet, nutrition, and dental diseases.

FDI Congress is one of the biggest events in the oral health calendar and it was a pleasure to interact with so many other like-minded individuals and groups who share our ambition of better oral health for all. We are looking forward to the 2024 World Dental Congress in Istanbul.

A new systematic review and meta-analysis into the effect of chewing gum on xerostomia (dry mouth) has been published in the BMC Oral Health journal.

Xerostomia can negatively affect peoples’ quality of life with symptoms including oral dryness; thirst; difficulty speaking, chewing, and swallowing food; oral discomfort; mouth soft tissue soreness and infections; and rampant tooth decay. The objective of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate if gum chewing is an intervention that results in improvements in salivary flow rates and relief from xerostomia.

The review looked at studies focused on elderly people with xerostomia and medically compromised people with xerostomia. A meta-analysis was conducted on studies where measurements of unstimulated whole salivary flow rate for both a gum chewing, and no gum chewing intervention (daily chewing of gum for two weeks or longer) were reported.

The review found that chewing gum can increase unstimulated salivary flow rate in elderly and medically compromised people with xerostomia. Increasing the number of days over which gum is chewed increases the improvement in the rate of salivation. Gum chewing was also linked with improvements in self-reported levels of xerostomia (although it is noted that no significant effects were detected in five of the studies reviewed).

A review article published in The Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice by Shankargouda and colleagues has reviewed evidence relating to the oral health benefits of sweeteners, finding that – although cautious intake is recommended – sweeteners can “benefit several health conditions” and that dental caries “are indicated to decline in individuals” consuming these ingredients. The authors conclude that the body of available research in this area shows that “sweeteners act as a majority help to maintain good oral health”.

Sweeteners are used in sugar-free gum to provide a good taste and oral health benefits. Unlike sugar, they do not promote tooth decay because they cannot be broken down by oral bacteria in the mouth. Furthermore, chewing sugar-free chewing gum stimulates saliva which helps to maintain healthy teeth by clearing the mouth of food debris and sugar(s), neutralizing harmful plaque acids, and supporting remineralization of tooth enamel. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) notes that “there is sufficient scientific information to support the claims that intense sweeteners, as all sugar replacers, maintain tooth mineralization by decreasing tooth demineralization if consumed instead of sugars”.[1]