Gum can remove bacteria from mouths

Scientists from the Netherlands found that chewing gum can remove harmful bacteria from mouths. A single piece of chewing gum can remove 100 million bacteria - 10 per cent of the microbial load in saliva. The study was appered in the journal PLoS One.

During one of the experiments known numbers of bacteria were finger-chewed into the mouths of participants, and they were then asked to chew gum for 10 minutes.

About 100 million bacteria were detected on each piece of chewed gum. Trapped bacteria were clearly visualised in chewed gum using scanning-electron-microscopy. However, only gum that did not contain sugar was useful; if it did contain sugar, it could ‘feed’ oral bacteria.

The gum was most effective in the first 30 seconds of chewing, and after that it would become less effective in trapping bacteria. Morever, continuously chewing gum can ultimately release some of the absorbed bacteria back into the mouth, The Daily Mail reports.

The researchers add that their research could be used to develop gum that selectively removes specific disease-related bacteria from mouths.

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