Cavity-fighting lollipops
Healthy Grid, an oral health company, has announced that it will soon be launching Loloz, cavity-fighting lollipops, designed to enable consumers to fight cavities while enjoying a sweet treat.
Healthy Grid’s Andrew Clapp, says, “We know that some people need a little boost to keep their teeth up and others would just flat-out benefit from a little less sugar in their diets. That’s where Loloz and Xylitol come in.”
Loloz were developed at UCLA when Dr Wenyuan Shi, professor and chair at UCLA’s School of Dentistry Section of Oral Biology, sought to use some philosophy from his native China to combat tooth decay in America. After testing over 1,000 herbs in 50,000 scenarios Shi discovered an effective tool: licorice root.
The form of licorice root that helps kill the cavity causing bacteria doesn’t taste like licorice candy, according to Clapp. A lollipop was determined to be the best way to get people to try the product because the herb requires five minutes of exposure to treat teeth.
“We started with just orange as a flavor,” says Clapp, “but not everyone likes that either so we’ve expanded to include berry and lemon options as well.”
The suggested dose is two Loloz lollipops a day for 10 days, four times a year. Clapp says that, while they may appeal mostly to children, they are suitable for consumers of all ages. Loloz is undergoing another round of testing by Dr Shi to enable Healthy Grid to make specific claims about its efficacy. This round of testing should be complete within a few months and the product will be on the market as soon as possible.