2009 Volume 52 Issue 6 Pages 534-542
Phosphoryl Oligosaccharides of Calcium (POs-Ca), which are produced by enzymatic digestion of potato starch, have been compounded into a dental gum (POs-Ca®, Ezaki Glico) for remineralization of enamel subsurface lesions because of its high solubility in water. However, there are few reports about the remineralization effects by POs-Ca in vivo. The aim of this study was to clinically evaluate the effect of chewing gum containing POs-Ca on remineralization and the micro-level structure change of enamel subsurface lesions in a human in situ model. The study utilized a double-blind, randomized design with two treatments: (i) gum containing 2.5% of POs-Ca, and (ii) gum containing no POs-Ca as the control. Twenty subjects wore removable oral appliances with insets of bovine enamel blocks containing demineralized subsurface lesions and chewed the gum for 20 minutes 3 times per day for 14 days. After each treatment the enamel blocks were removed, embedded, sectioned, and subjected to microradiography for measurement of the level of remineralization, as well as X-ray microbeam diffraction for measurement of the level of hydroxyapatite crystallites. The data was analyzed by t-test at a level of significance 0.05. The gum containing POs-Ca significantly facilitated the restoration of crystal content in comparison with POs-Ca free gum. Moreover, the hydroxyapatite crystallites of the restored region have the same orientation as the sound enamel. These results suggest that chewing gum that contains POs-Ca facilitates the restoration of early caries by remineralization, and further by recrystallization to a sound structure, which is refilled with uniquely oriented hydroxyapatite crystallites.
