Xylitol is found in strawberries, plums, mushrooms, corn, straw, seed hulls, nutshells and birch wood. Small amounts are even made by your own body when you metabolize glucose.
Xylitol is NOT like other artificial sweeteners. Other artificial sweeteners can be harmful to both your teeth and your body. View Dr. Joseph Mercola: Sweet Deception and discover the deadliest health deception linked to artificial sweeteners.
How Xylitol Works:
It makes sense to call xylitol a natural anti-biotic (eliminating harmful mouth bacteria) and a pro-biotic (encouraging healthy oral bacteria).
Xylitol "selectively" eliminates harmful oral bacteria - (the ones that produce toxins and acids to damage teeth and gums). Xylitol also prevents these oral bacteria from producing sticky tendrils that allow them to "layer" on each other and stick to teeth.
This is why plaque no longer "sticks to teeth" once you have been eating xylitol for 6 months or more. This is also why you will no longer get a thick build up of foamy white plaque when you eat 6.5 grams of xylitol daily. Xylitol is selectively eliminating the harmful "strain" of mouth bacteria.
In addition, xylitol allows helpful protective bacteria (ones that do not produce acids or toxins) to coat your teeth in a thin, healthy layer. These new bacteria are non-acid producing and they do not "layer" because they do not produce sticky tendrils.
These helpful bacteria block up cracks and grooves in your teeth to protect them from "intruders" and they also pump minerals into the tooth below them. These new kind of bacteria are basically forming a "healthy" layer over your teeth - a healthy "biofilm" that is protective.
Healthy Biofilm:
The group formation of healthy biofilm is complicated and behaves in an interesting way. This layer coats teeth in a healthy mouth and is protective of teeth.
This layer is able to resist temperatures and chemicals from foods and drinks (that you put in your mouth!). These foods and drinks would otherwise kill individual bacteria and damage your teeth.
Oral biofilm that covers your teeth is a mixture of cells and proteins woven together at a microscopic level to create an entity that has a protective " group character". Having a "Group Character" means that this healthy biofilm is stronger and more resistant than the individual components it contains, if they were working alone. In this way, the components of this healthy biofilm work harmoniously to cover teeth and keep them healthy.
We need a cover over our teeth!
This is quite a difficult concept for people who only think of "plaque" as bad. To help with the concept, I try to explain "plaque" being like a duvet - or bed cover.
Imagine this duvet (bed cover) over your teeth. If you looked down a very powerful microscope you would see this cover is composed of cells and fibers (like feathers and baffles in a duvet).
When the cover is clean and healthy it protects the underlying tooth. If this cover were to get infected with bed bugs it would no longer be protective, but would be dangerous for the person under the cover. These harmful bugs would produce poisons and noxious liquids to damage the person under the cover.This is infected plaque, that produces acids and toxins to damage teeth and gums.
Plaque must be clean and free of harmful and noxious "bed bugs" .Then this layer can become a healthy protective layer (a healthy biofilm) to keep underlying teeth safe and remineralized.
If you are on my Complete Mouth Care System we have addressed the formation of this "healthy biofilm" layer on your teeth.
Xylitol has such a long and successful track record. It appears in Chinese medicine 2500 years BC that for oral health they used a similar product to xylitol from trees!
I personally consider xylitol to be the ultimate oral pro-biotic since it also works to get rid of the "bugs" you don't want!
The benefits of Xylitol were discovered in Europe during the 1940s:
During wartime in the 1940’s there were sugar shortages in Europe and Xylitol was used as a table sugar in many countries.
After wartime, Scandinavians continued to eat Xylitol and by chance discovered its medical and dental health benefits. Xylitol has been used for over 100 years in diabetic treatments.
- Xylitol prevents cavities instead of causing them.
- Xylitol is FDA approved for complete safety.
