Xylitol Dental Products: A General OverviewXylitol is a completely natural substance that is currently being used as sugar free sweetening agent in the food industry world wide. Xylitol derives its name from the word xylan, which is the substance in birch trees, berries, almond hulls and corn cobs from which xylitol is made. Though it was actually discovered in 1891, xylitol was not actually used as a sweetener until almost a century later, in the 1960's. Studies of xylitol have been performed in a host of countries around the world, and after at least 30 years of close study, xylitol has been found to be a safe and effective sugar alternative.
There are many reasons why people are trying to avoid products that contain sugar these days. For example, in the United States there has been a sharp increase in cases of diabetes due to obesity in recent years. The obesity epidemic in the United States and much of the developed world can be traced back to diets heavy in sweets and sugary drinks. Overconsumption of sugar has also been linked in several studies as a contributing factor to the development of many cancers. Another result of diets that are high in fats and sugars is the promotion of poor oral health, including gum disease and tooth decay. For this reason there are now many dental products that are currently being made with xylitol as the main sweetening agent.
There is a certain amount of irony in the fact that many products that were originally intended to contribute to good oral hygiene have often contained sugar and other substances that tend to instead contribute to tooth decay and poor gum health. One of the more important findings concerning xylitol containing dental products is the fact that products like xylitol chewing gum and xylitol mints have been shown to benefit dental health. Due to the fact that xylitol containing dental products have been found effective for dental health characteristics, people can use them as preventative measures against the future development of tooth decay and gum disease.
Xylitol is used in the place of sugar in a variety of products. The products that have been found to promote dental health include xylitol chewing gum varieties and xylitol breath mints. However, because xylitol can be derived from a number of different source products, from birch trees to almonds, it has to be remembered that the way it is produced is likely to have an impact on the quality of the product. For this reason, when you are looking for quality xylitol dental products it is good to do some research concerning which brands are the highest quality on the market today.
If you are interested in learning more about xylitol dental products, such as xylitol gum and xylitol mints, all you have to do is perform a search on your favorite search engine for xylitol dental products.