If the entire British population chewed sugarfree gum, dental decay would fall so much that the National Health Service (NHS) could save over £100 million per year on dental care – and solve the desperate shortage of dentists. Costs for private care would also fall drastically according to a new study by the University of York Health Economics Consortium.

The study calculated the economic impact of chewing sugarfree gum, in terms of NHS and private money saved and dentist time freed up, which would otherwise be spent on treating dental caries (decay), either with fillings or extractions. The report also calculated that chewing sugarfree gum is already saving the time of up to 263 full-time dentists or almost £19 million per year in the UK.

Chewing sugarfree gum has been proven, in a number of clinical studies, to reduce caries by stimulating the production of saliva, which neutralises the plaque acids that cause tooth decay. It has been calculated that people chewing sugarfree gum three times a day reduce their risk of caries by 35.3% compared with those who do not chew gum.

On this basis, the University of York Health Economics Consortium set up three possible scenarios: first conservatively suggesting that those chewing less than three times a day derive no benefit from chewing; second, a linear relationship between chewing and caries with zero benefit for non-chewers and the full 35.3% reduction for those chewing three times a day; and the third a more complex exponential relationship, again with non-chewers getting no benefit and those chewing three times a day obtaining the full reduction.

Under scenario one, it was calculated that chewing sugarfree gum currently prevents sufficient dental caries to save the time of approximately 32 whole-time dentists per year,with an estimated cost saving of £1.45 million. Under scenario two, the time of around 263 dentists is saved, with a cost saving of £18.99 million per year, and under scenario three, around 118 dentists and £8.07 million is saved. The biggest savings are likely to occur with children, who are the most frequent chewers, and likely to benefit most.

More dramatically however, the report’s authors calculated the impact of encouraging the entire UK population to chew sugarfree gum. They calculated that if everyone chewed three times a day, the reduction in caries would be so great that under any of the three possible scenarios the time of over 2,600 whole-time dentists could be saved, with a cost saving of almost £250 million. ‘A policy to promote the use of sugarfree gum would lead to the freeing up of valuable resources and the relief of capacity pressure on an already stretched dental health care system,’ concluded Arran Shearer, chief researcher on the project.

Reference

1. Shearer A. The economic impact of chewing sugarfree gum on NHS and private dental care in the UK. The Dentist, July 2003.

Note to editors:  In the financial year 2001-2 the NHS spent approximately £346.5 million on performing 24.2m fillings and 4.5m extractions. This accounted for 28% of NHS dental expenditure. It is estimated that around 50% of extractions are due to caries.