Xylitol Sugar Substitute May Prevent Cavities in Toddlers

The sugar alcohol used in xylitol is a naturally occurring one, found in berries, corn husks, and oats, and extracted from birch, raspberries, plums, and corn, according to Wikipedia. That xylitol as a sugar substitute may help prevent cavities is not a new concept. The first study of its kind was in the 1970s, and the study's findings were that people chewing gum with xylitol had less cavities than people who chewed gum containing sucrose.

Xylitol was given to new mothers in another study. It was given in gum to mothers when their children were between 3 months old and 2 years old. In this study too, xylitol prevented cavities.

More recent studies show that xylitol helps prevent cavities by inhibiting plaque formation. Its sugars apparently draw in the bacteria and microorganisms that cause plaque, then "starve" them because the actual food that they require is not present in xylitol.

Early childhood tooth decay is a large problem because of the sugar-rich diets that children are naturally on (healthy infant and toddler foods have lots of sugar; the brain is developing most in those early years and sugar helps that occur, which helps in explaining the correlation between small children and sugar cravings). Since most of the previously done studies use gum as a way to expose people to xylitol's cavity fighting effects, it had been difficult to test this effect in young children. The most recent study used syrup instead, and did find that xylitol prevented cavities in toddlers.