XYLITOL CLINCIAL STUDIES FOR CARIES PREVENTION

木糖醇可以作为一种有效的预防干预措施，帮助减少口腔健康差距，特别是在学前教育和学校膳食计划中。然而，它并没有被广泛采用，也没有被包括在最近的口腔卫生报告中描述的预防龋齿的方法中。对木糖醇的作用机制以及剂量、使用频率与反应之间的关系进行研究，是为了解决一些与木糖醇使用有关的未知问题。从这个意义上说，提议的工作是“非传统的”。拟议的研究与拟议的口腔健康差异研究中心（Pis Roberts和Grossman）的其他两个项目有关，并与他们分享方法和试点数据。本研究的具体目的是：1.研究方法：确定年轻成人木糖醇胶接触次数与对突变链球菌的影响之间的关系。2. 目的：探讨恒定接触剂量下青壮年木糖醇胶突变葡萄球菌的剂量与效应关系。3. 比较年轻人和儿童在最佳剂量和每日接触次数下对新含木糖醇食品或零食的细菌反应与木糖醇口香糖的细菌反应。提出了四项研究。前两项研究检查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替代制剂在最佳频率和剂量下与口香糖相比的效果。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工作人员中招募341人。研究4也将需要大约111名儿童，并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.