Medicine: Vitamin K Gum

As most toothache victims know, cavities are generally caused by acid which forms in the mouth from fermenting food particles. Dentists can partly neutralize or slow down formation of this acid with several safe chemicals. The problem has not been what to give busy patients—but how to give it.

Northwestern University Dental School’s Dr. Leonard S. Fosdick & co-workers may have found an answer. Reporting in the Journal of Dental Research, the experimenters released some long-awaited data on acid-decreasing synthetic vitamin K (2-methyl-1, 4-napthoquinone). They hit on the idea of spreading it on chewing gum. For the experiment, 55 Northwestern students faithfully chomped vitamin K-coated gum for ten minutes after each meal. Another 45 chewed untreated gum. A third group chewed nothing.

Result: after 18 months, the vitamin K chewers had 60% to 90% fewer new cavities than the others. The experimenters noted with interest that vitamin K gum seemed more effective than highly publicized fluorinated drinking water (TIME, April 24, 1944).

Until the happy day when vitamin-coated gum—or some other near-magic—can stop tooth decay for. good, Pittsburgh’s Dr. I. Franklin Miller suggests that dentists apply a smooth brand of psychology along with the drill. Dr. Miller recommends: waiting rooms full of knick-knacks to divert waiters; all the instruments of torture hidden; soft music, coffee and cigarets during “ten-minute breaks” in the grinding and probing.