Chewing Gum to Prevent Preterm Birth! Maybe.

In the United States, more than 400,000 babies are born prematurely each year, which is about 1 in 10 babies. Over the last several decades, multiple studies have shown a link between poor oral health and increased occurrence of preterm birth. Researchers have looked at various ways to improve dental health during pregnancy, including doing a “deep-teeth cleaning” (also called ‘scaling and planing’), which involves removing plaque and tarter on the teeth and below the gum line. However, despite improving periodontitis, deep teeth cleaning approaches have not proven to be effective in the prevention of preterm birth. But now new data has discovered an easy and inexpensive way to improve oral health and potentially reduce preterm births. This data was originally presented at the annual Pregnancy meeting at SMFM, but now it is a peer reviewed publication. In this episode, we will review how chewing xylitol gum has promising results for preterm birth reduction. Nonetheless, some important limitations must be reviewed. Listen In for details.