Wrigley Oral Healthcare Programs & IADR Salivary Research Group:
Supporting Dental Research & Dental Students Worldwide

In an exciting new partnership program, Wrigley Oral Healthcare Programs (WOHP) will sponsor the IADR Salivary Research Group symposium on ‘Mechanisms of Salivary Gland Regeneration’ at the 2009 IADR General Session in Miami, USA. WOHP and the IADR Salivary Research Group share a common approach to raise awareness of the benefits of saliva to oral health.  Over the past 25 years and more recently through the Wrigley Science Institute , Wrigley has pioneered research into the oral care benefits of chewing sugar free gum.  Currently, Wrigleyoperates oral care programs in 47 countries, bringing dental professionals and their patients’ a range of information on everyday oral care.  

Wrigley’s Oral Healthcare Program is grounded in extensive scientific research, which has shown that chewing sugar free gum for 20 minutes after eating and drinking stimulates saliva, thus helping to stop ‘acid attacks’ .  As is well known, frequent consumption of carbohydrates feed the bacteria in the oral cavity and can cause an acidogenic attack, which can lead to caries, while acidic foods and drinks increase the erosive potential on teeth surfaces.  These acid attacks can last for hours so chewing sugar free gum during this crucial period helps to neutralize the effects of the acid attacks.

The focus of the symposium will look at the effect of the loss of saliva production both on oral health and systemically.  Diseases, radiation treatments or prescribed drugs can all cause xerostomia, resulting in an increase in mucosal irritation, increase in demineralization and caries, in addition to reduced quality of life.  There are few treatments for xerostomia and no simple saliva replacements.  Chewing sugar free gum has been shown to provide significant relief for this condition while a more complex option is the regeneration of salivary gland tissue.  The symposium will explore four different approaches that may provide treatment solutions to this distressing condition.

WOHP also considers the General Session a great opportunity to launch the 2010 Wrigley Oral Healthcare Programs Student Travel Awards with the IADR Salivary Group.  These awards are aimed at recognizing excellent student salivary research and awarding travel grants to the winning students who may have not otherwise been able to attend IADR meetings due to financial constraints. Encouraging more students to attend IADR meetings is a key priority for the Salivary Research Group in order to grow membership numbers, maintain the vitality of the group, and stimulate new research in this field. 

Students are also a big focus for WOHP. WOHP already invests in student education around the world, from developing a special “StuDent” saliva educational program, which is incorporated into dental school curriculums throughout Germany, to sponsoring a student award in the UK. The 2010 WOHP Student Travel Awards will provide students worldwide the opportunity to submit an abstract on oral health. All abstracts must include the objective, methodology, results and conclusion.An awards committee at the Salivary Research Group will select one winner from each of IADR’s five geographies (North/South America, Asia/Pacific, Middle East, Europe and Africa). The prize of £500 per winner is intended to help pay for the winners to attend the IADR annual meeting where they will be invited to present their abstract.

If you are interested in submitting an abstract for the 2010 IADR Salivary Group/WOHP Student Travel Awards watch for more detailed information on the IADR Salivary Research Group and IADR websites in March 2009.