Chew gum to prevent ear infection. From: HealthFacts | Date: December 1, 1996 | COPYRIGHT 1996 Center for Medical Consumers, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Chewing gum regularly has been found to prevent acute ear infection (acute otitis media) in some children. A new study randomly assigned 306 Fi ish preschool children to chew gum sweetened either with sucrose or xylitol every day. After three months, there was a 40% reduction in the incidence of acute otitis media among the children who had been chewing xylitol gum (British Medical Journal, 9 November 1996).

Xylitol is a sweetener used in a wide variety of foods. A natural s...

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	Acute Otitis Media: Part I. Improving Diagnostic Accuracy. American Family Physician ; Acute otitis media is overdiagnosed. Symptoms are neither sensitive nor specific for the diagnosis of otitis media; fever and ear pain are present in only one half of patients. Undue reliance on one feature--redness of the tympanic membrane--and failure to assess tympanic membrane mobility with
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	Don't routinely give antibiotics for otitis media. (Dutch Physicians Are In Lead).(Brief Article) Family Practice News ; NEW YORK -- Following the lead of the Dutch in the management of acute otitis media could help reduce pneumococcal resistance rates in this country, which now range from 16% to 40%. Resistance rates of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the Netherlands are less than 1%, at least in part because Dutch
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