Madrid
Updated:
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Daily use of xylitol-containing gum before or during early pregnancy significantly reduced the number of preterm births, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
(SMFM),
The Pregnancy Meeting.
Every year, approximately 15 million babies are born prematurely or preterm (defined as delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy), and this number is on the rise, according to the World Health Organization. Premature babies are at higher risk of experiencing serious health problems.
In recent decades, several studies have shown a relationship between poor oral health and the increased incidence of preterm birth. Researchers have looked at several ways to improve dental health during pregnancy, including “deep teeth cleaning” (also called “scaling and planing”), which involves removing plaque and tartar on the teeth and below the gum line.
However, despite improving periodontitis, deep dental cleaning approaches have not been shown to be effective in preventing preterm birth.
But now researchers have discovered an easy and inexpensive way to improve oral health and reduce premature births.
The study, the largest of its kind, ran for 10 years and included 10,069 women in Malawi, a country of Southern and Central Africa, which has the highest number of premature births in the world. Most Malawians live in rural areas, making studies of this magnitude especially difficult to conduct.
The cluster randomized trial included participants from eight health centers in Malawi and was approved by the Malawi Ministry of Health. Participants voluntarily enrolled and consented to participate before becoming pregnant or within 20 weeks of becoming pregnant.
The centers provided messages promoting oral health care and the prevention and care of preterm birth. Half of the eight centers also provided xylitol gum to the research participants.
In the four health centers that served as a control group, 5,520 participants received basic education on oral and perinatal health, including things they might do to help reduce the chance of having a baby too soon.
In the other four, the 4,549 participants also received this same health education, but also xylitol gum and were instructed to chew it for 10 minutes once a day, ideally twice a day, during pregnancy.
Of the 9,670 participants who were available for contact during the six years of follow-up, the results showed a significant reduction in preterm birth among those who chewed the xylitol-containing gum (12.6% vs. 16.%) and fewer births low birth weight infants, those weighing 5.5 pounds or less, (8.9 percent vs. 12.9 percent). The participants also improved in their oral health.
“Chewing xylitol gum as an intervention before 20 weeks of pregnancy reduced preterm births, and specifically late preterm births between 34 and 37 weeks,” says study lead author Kjersti Aagaard.
“When we analyzed by birth weight, rather than estimated gestational age at delivery, we similarly show a significant improvement in birth weight with a third fewer low birth weight babies being born».
Aagaard points out that what is unique regarding the study is that we use a readily available medium, cheap and tasty to reduce the risk of a baby being born too early or too small.
