“Uso de edulcorantes en pacientes pediátricos para control de caries. Revisión bibliográfica.”

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Sweeteners known as substitutes for ordinary sugar are a new alternative in the dentistry field to control caries in the pediatrics area since, unlike their counterpart, common sugar, they do not adhere to the dental pieces, which prevents the salivary pH from dropping, being alkaline, thus preventing dental caries. OBJECTIVE: To analyze sweetener usage in pediatric patients for caries control. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A structured bibliographic search was conducted to analyze the sweeteners used in pediatric patients for caries control. This search was performed through the following databases: EBSCO, Science Direct, PubMed (Central), SCOPUS, Web of Science (WoS), Open Grey, and Cochrane Library, and included articles published from 2018 to 2023. The sources used were open access; 87 manuscripts were discarded, and 33 were selected. RESULTS: Sweetener usage in pediatric dentistry proved to be of great acceptance because of the control that they have on the dental caries protection; due to some circumstances, such as there being no adherence in the dental pieces, thus becoming a positive effect for their usage, identifying xylitol as the most utilized in children and accepted by parents. CONCLUSIONS: The sweetener usage in controlled doses that do not exceed 5 to 10 g per day helps in caries prevention; administrating lower doses does not achieve the same results.