At my age, it is the norm to have multiple fillings, crowns and or root canals. I must have attained a sweet level of oral health to negate the need for these procedures. What have I done? Well, quite simply, I have maintained a regular schedule of preventative office visits. That and the regular use of xylitol products have helped me avoid the chair.
What is xylitol? It happens to be a glyconutrient that our bodies make. There are many benefits to supplementing with it. I first learned about xylitol many years ago and experienced firsthand the many ways it has benefited my family and myself. Upon learning that it starves the cavity bacteria itself, I was more than intrigued. I had to research it. Indeed, it does. The infamous streptococcus mutans apparently does not like xylitol. In fact, it starves it. What?? Eating candy can starve cavity bacteria? Holy-moly sounds too good to be true, but, it is true. Not only that, but xylitol nasal spray has proven benefits in the sinus as well. People often ask me, “how come I have not heard of this before?”. Well, my friends, we only have so much time to convey as much information as we can to you during our visits together. I spend my days educating as many people as I can. I have educated private offices and many doctors and hygienists at the Oregon Dental Convention about the benefits of xylitol.
Xylitol stimulates saliva flow. This is important as cavities spread like wildfire in a dry mouth. It also alkalizes the Ph and inhibits the biofilm. Many medications and health conditions induce dry mouth, ask me, I have experienced this firsthand. If you notice this, you will likely be surprised to find the rate of cavities increasing. The best defense is a great offense.
Making you an unfriendly environment for oral diseases is our goal in educating you. We can do fillings and crowns to remove damaged diseased tooth structure, but the environment remains unless it is changed.
An antibiotic regimen is often 3 or 4 times per day to knock out an infection. There are so many bacteria in the mouth that it takes 5 exposures of xylitol per day for 6 months to decolonize from the cavity bacteria. They say that babies born to women who use xylitol in therapeutic doses have a 70% reduction in cavities for 5 years after birth. Why is that? Well, the mom’s have effectively decolonized and are not passing the cavity bacteria to their babies. What? Yes, cavity bacteria is transmissible and so is the bacteria that cause gum disease.
Our goal, here at Contemporary Family Dentistry, is to help you attain a level of health, so you do not need extensive treatment because diseases of hard and or soft tissue are taking advantage of you.
Well, that’s one of my main secrets. Xylitol is not good for dogs and it is imperative that you do not leave it where your pet can get it. So, keep it away and treat it like people medicine.