An analysis of sugar content of commonly used pediatric liquid medicines--its relevance to dentistry.

The sugar content of twenty-four liquid medicines commonly prescribed for infants and young children were measured and the type of sugars present were also identified in four randomly selected samples. All the liquid medicines tested contained sugar, in the range of 29.4% to 61.2%. Sucrose appeared to be the most commonly used sugar. Whilst it is agreed that sucrose makes the medicine more acceptable to children, its continual use by the pharmaceutical industry should be discontinued due to its harmful effect on the dental health of children, particularly those taking these syrup-based medicines on prolonged basis. Sugar-free alternatives such as sorbitol or saccharin should be used instead.