The soft mint contains arginine (branded as CaviStat), a component of human saliva that is known to neutralise acids that can damage tooth enamel.

"CaviStat can be considered to be a super-saliva complex that will pick up where fluoride has left off," said Dr Israel Kleinberg, lead researcher and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

"By mimicking the profound benefits of saliva we are able to attack the several stages of the tooth decay process."

A clinical trial in Venezuela involving 200 children aged between 10 and 11 demonstrated the effectiveness of arginine in fighting tooth decay.

Half of the children in the study took two mints in the morning and two at night, after brushing with a fluoride toothpaste.

The other half brushed twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and took plain sugarless mints.

At the end of trial, the children given the medicated mint had 62 percent less instances of cavities than those given the plain mint.

"This technology will be very beneficial to children and those adults prone to root caries due to dry mouth induced by medications, cancer treatments and medical conditions, such as Sjogren's syndrome," said Professor Kleinberg.

"We feel that CaviStat will be the new paradigm for fighting tooth decay."

The mints are designed to be dissolved and chewed into the biting surfaces of the back teeth -- where around 90 percent of childhood cavities occur.

"Unlike regular candies, we want this product to be stuck in the teeth," said Mitchell Goldberg, president of Ortek Therapeutics, the company that has licensed the technology from Stony Brook.

Ortek plans to seek regulatory approval to begin testing the product in the US this year -- but it could be several years before it is authorised for sale to the public.

"Clearly this technology has market potential in the billions and is a major advance in protecting healthy teeth," Goldberg said.