The Impact of Milk with Xylitol on Dental Caries –A Review

Dental caries is a infectious microbiologic disease of the tooth that results in localized dissolution and destruction of calcified tissues. Its seen in all age groups, few preventive agents have been evaluated to prevent the caries. Xylitol, a polysugar, obtained from birch tree has been shown to reduce dental caries when mixed with food, chewing gums and milk. Dental caries are prevalent in acidic pH where Streptoccocus mutans (MS) ferment and does resulting in demineralization of tooth this acidic pH is created by consumption of carbohydrate foods which results in decreased salivary secretion which in turn result demineralization of tooth, where as Streptococcus mutans cannot ferment xylitol thus it reduces MS by altering their metabolic pathway and enhance remineralization and helps arrest dentinal caries. Reduction in caries rate are greater, when xylitol is used as the sugar substitutes. This review discuss the taste acceptability of xylitol in milk as a step towards measuring the effectiveness for the reduction of dental caries.