XYLITOL CLINCIAL STUDIES FOR CARIES PREVENTION

木糖醇可能是一种有效的预防性干预措施，有助于减少口腔健康差距，特别是在Head Start和学校膳食计划中。然而，它还没有被广泛采用，也没有包括在最近卫生局局长关于口腔健康的报告中描述的龋齿预防方法中。建议对其作用机制以及剂量、使用频率和反应之间的关系进行研究，以解决与木糖醇使用有关的一些未知问题。从这个意义上说，这项工作是“非传统的”。这项拟议的研究与拟议的口腔健康差距研究中心(Pis Roberts和Grossman)的另外两个项目有关，并与他们分享方法和试点数据。本研究的具体目的是：1.确定接触木糖醇口香糖的链球菌的次数与其对链球菌的影响之间的关系。2.确定木糖醇口香糖突变株在青壮年恒定暴露次数下的剂量效应关系。3.比较青少年和儿童在每天最佳剂量和暴露次数下对含木糖醇的新食物或零食和木糖醇口香糖的细菌反应。本文提出了四项研究。前两项研究考察了成人受试者使用含木糖醇口香糖的频率和剂量对微生物的影响。第三项研究考察了木糖醇的替代制剂在最佳频率和剂量下与口香糖的效果。第四项研究考察了木糖醇替代制剂对儿童的影响，第四项研究考察了木糖醇替代制剂对儿童的影响。前3项成人研究的受试者将从华盛顿大学的学生和教职员工中招募341人。研究4还将需要大约111名儿童，将在华盛顿州西南部农村县的学前班或学校教室进行。

Xylitol could be effective as a preventive intervention in helping reduce oral health disparities, especially in Head Start and school-based meal programs. However, it has not been widely adopted and is not included in the caries prevention methods described in recent Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health. The proposed studies about its mechanism of action and the relationship between dose, frequently of use and response, are to address some of the unknown related to the use of xylitol. In this sense, the work proposed is "non-traditional." The proposed research is associated with two other projects in the proposed oral health disparity research center (Pis Roberts and Grossman) and shares methods and pilot data with them. The specific aims of this research are: 1. To determine the relationship between number of exposures and effects on Streptococcus mutants for xylitol gum in young adults. 2. To determine the relations between dose and effects of S. mutants for xylitol gum with a constant number of exposures in young adults. 3. To compare the bacterial response to new xylitol-containing foods or snacks at an optimal dosage and number of exposures/day to that for xylitol gum in both young adults and children. Four studies are proposed. The first two examine the microbiological effects of frequency and dose of use of xylitol-containing chewing gum in adult subjects. The third examines the effects of alternative preparations of xylitol in comparison to chewing gum at optimal frequency and dose. The fourth study examines the effects of the alternative preparations of xylitol in children The fourth study examines the effects of the alternative preparations of xylitol in children. Subjects for the first 3 adult studies will be 341 recruited from among the University of Washington students and staff. Study 4 will also require approximately 111 children and will be conducted in preschool or school classrooms in a rural county in SW Washington State.