How do 3 to 5-year-old children handle a lozenge? A clinical-experimental study.
The aim was to investigate how 3, 4 and 5-year-old children would handle a placebo lozenge in the oral cavity when given instructions on how to use it. The material consisted of sixty-five healthy pre-school children at three day-care centres in the city of Stockholm. Two lozenge sizes were tested: 400 mg (10 mm in diameter) and 800 mg (13.5 mm in diameter). The children were told to try to keep the lozenge in the mouth without sucking or biting on it until asked to spit out. Any tablet remains were collected and weighed after 5, 10 and 15 minutes, respectively. The results showed that the larger lozenge gave the longest dissolution time. This lozenge was also well tolerated by the children. It was noteworthy that 62% of the children could keep parts of the lozenge in the mouth for at least 10 minutes. The possible benefits of using a lozenge compared with a conventional tablet for preventing caries has to be further investigated.
Leksell
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Eastman Dental Institute, Stockholm County Council, Sweden.
Mejàre
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D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005459:Fluorides / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D010316:Particle Size; D013607:Tablets
D013607:Tablets; D005459:Fluorides