The today's front page of our student paper shows a large color photo of a person's mouth full of different color gum balls with a title "Dental association certifies Wrigley gums as beneficial". Apparently, on September 25th, the American Dental Association awarded its Seal of Acceptance to Wrigley sugarfree chewing gums, because as they wrote on their website "are clinically shown to help prevent cavities, reduce plaque acid and strengthen teeth." The other products that have been awarded the ADA Seal of Acceptance are toothbrushes, toothpastes, dental floss, and mouth rinses." Any chance of convincing ADA that eating apples also does the same thing and even better. Unlike gums that have food colorants, preservatives, salts, etc., apples have antioxidants and fibers that have been proven to provide better health. Here is an article that we can share with ADA if we can get them to listen. [Reduction of dental plaque by apples and chewing gum by [ <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Schne ider%20HG%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPa nel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus> Schneider HG, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Kniek necht%20I%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPa nel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus> Knieknecht I. With aid of Plaque-Index (Quigley-Hein) the reduction of dental plaque was observed on 100 children per group: Tooth brushing for 2 min (first control group), Tooth brushing for 2 min combined with individual instruction and control of procedure (second control group), Eating an apple, Masticating chewing gum for 1 h. The following average reduction of dental plaque was find out: Group 1--0.42 grade of index (14.9%); group 2--1.00 (35.0%); group 3--0.47 (15.9%); group 4--0.28 (9.7%). Mosbah M. Kushad, University of Illinois
