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The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of the use of xylitol-containing tooth-wipes in preventing dental caries in young children. In a double-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial, 44 mothers with active caries and their 6- to 35-month-old children were randomized to xylitol-wipe or placebo-wipe groups. The children’s caries scores were recorded at baseline and 1 year. Salivary levels of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli were enumerated at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. Data were analyzed by intent-to-treat modeling with imputation for caries lesions and a linear mixed-effect model for bacterial levels. Significantly fewer children in the xylitol-wipe group had new caries lesions at 1 year compared with those in the placebo-wipe group (P < 0.05). No significant differences between the two groups were observed in levels of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli at all time-points. Daily xylitol-wipe application significantly reduced the caries incidence in young children as compared with wipes without xylitol, suggesting that the use of xylitol wipes may be a useful adjunct for caries control in infants ( Clinicaltrials.gov registration number CT01468727).

Described for the first time in 1971, Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia (SIOD) is an autosomal-recessive multisystem disorder that is caused by bi-allelic mutations of SMARCAL1, which encodes a DNA annealing helicase. To define better the dental anomalies of SIOD, we reviewed the records from SIOD patients with identified bi-allelic SMARCAL1 mutations, and we found that 66.0% had microdontia, hypodontia, or malformed deciduous and permanent molars. Immunohistochemical analyses showed expression of SMARCAL1 in all developing teeth, raising the possibility that the malformations are cell-autonomous consequences of SMARCAL1 deficiency. We also found that stimulation of cultured skin fibroblasts from SIOD patients with the tooth morphogens WNT3A, BMP4, and TGFβ1 identified altered transcriptional responses, raising the hypothesis that the dental malformations arise in part from altered responses to developmental morphogens. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study of the dental anomalies associated with SIOD. © 2012, International & American Associations for Dental Research. All rights reserved.