Dr. Emily Craft, DDS recorded a video about xylitol and dental health. Read on for a summary of her thoughts. 
Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar that you find in a lot of fibrous plants, fruits, and vegetables. Believe it or not, this sugar has a lot of positive benefits and effects for your teeth.
So one of the questions you might be asking right now is, if xylitol is so good for my teeth how do I get it? Well xylitol is most commonly found in a lot of sugar-free chewing gums, but it also comes in hard candy, lozenges, some toothpastes, and also some mouthwashes.
Some of the benefits of xylitol for your teeth are that it decreases the amount of plaque that forms after you eat. It also limits the amount of bacteria that adhere to your teeth, which is one of the major steps that has to occur in order for cavities to be formed. And the last thing is that it decreases the amount of acid that the bacteria are able to make.
So I have a lot of my patients asked me if I recommend chewing gum and the answer to that is that I definitely do recommend chewing gum as long as it’s sugar-free. The fact that gum is sugar-free is very important for teeth because gum with sugar is something that can be metabolized and instigate the formation of cavities. So make sure it’s sugar-free. I also really like xylitol as opposed to some of the other artificial sweeteners because it’s naturally occurring.
So the best thing you can do after you eat is to definitely brush and then floss. Sometimes this isn’t always the most convenient thing so remember that if you have xylitol gum around it’s very good for your teeth.
If you’re wondering where you can find this gum you can order it online or find it at a lot of natural food stores. One that comes to mind would be Whole Foods.
Watch the video below:
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