In vivo acid production from medicines in syrup form.

Syrup-form medicines have been shown to cause dental caries in chronically sick children. The acid production of 10 syrupy medicines sweetened with sucrose, fructose, sorbitol, xylitol and saccharin or with a combination of these was tested. The subjects consisted of 7 dental students with low buffering capacity and high levels of Streptococcus mutans. The subjects rinsed with sugar-based liquid medicines for 1 min, after which the plaque pH was measured with a Beetrode touch electrode at approximal sites until 40 min after the rinsing. The minimum pH, the delta pH, and the time under pH 5.7 were measured. From the results it can be concluded that xylitol, xylitol-saccharin and xylitol-sorbitol combinations used as sweeteners in syrup medicines are nonacidogenic, sorbitol is hypoacidogenic, and sucrose and fructose are highly acidogenic.