Lotte Xylitol: The Gum That Helps Prevent Tooth Decay

Remember the post I made about Gabbie’s dental visit and her milk cavities? Sadly, up until now, she has milk cavities. Luckily, despite her appetite for milk (she still drinks an average of 20-30 ounces of milk a day) we have managed the rapid spread of it on her teeth. I guess, as a parent I am bothered by this and wished that I had been more vigilant on insisting she brush her teeth even if she’s sound asleep after her last milk. She still prefers to drink milk in her bottle and being the progressive parent that I am and the phase of milk fatigue we encountered, I’m letting her be. Afterall, she’d eventually outgrow it.

Anyway, back to teeth and cavities. Did you know that current statistics show that 9 out of every 10 Filipino children have cavities and suffer from tooth decay, and that 92.4% of all Filipinos have dental caries?

Unfortunately, oral health greatly impacts the development of children, as well as their overall quality of life. Oral health does not only affect an individual physically, but psychologically. It can influence how one looks, speaks, chews, tastes food, enjoys life, grows, and even socializes with others.

Aminin, we only like going to the dentist when we have no choice. Either we want to have our crooked teeth fixed through braces or retainers or when we’re in pain because of cavities that have destroyed our teeth. Yikes.

I have had my fair share of horror stories when it comes to my teeth. I’ve had some removed, replaced, filled and even underwent root canal. Yes, it was painful and it was expensive too! I have no one else to blame but myself because sometimes, I’m too lazy to brush my teeth. Sorry na, tao lang. I’ve been saying this often because sweets is my addiction, (okay, tie sila with coffee) I especially like chewing gum. I find myself having a pack of gum plus my other baons inside my bag wherever I go. Lately, I am addicted to Lotte Xylitol Blueberry because it makes my mouth smell fresh and clean plus, it tastes sweet too.

So when the brand Lotte Xylitol approached me to be one of their brand believers, well, well, well, I was more than grateful and happy because I’ve been a believer of it ever since I’ve discovered it. Yes, parang talent manager lang who’s so proud of his discovery!

Anyway, here’s what happened during the intimate gathering held last Wednesday at Makati Shangri La.

Soi Kitaguchi, the General Manager Lotte Confectionary Pilipinas Corp. talked about, among others, how the name Lotte (pronounced as ló-té) was based on the name Charlotte.

Dr. Angelo Fernandez, DMD FCID told us that as a dentist, he finds that most of his patients only go to him when they need to and not even bother visit just for a regular check up.

Dr. Fina Lopez, DMD talked about the importance of dental hygiene especially to kids and how it can affect their everyday activity. She also later on discussed how tooth decay is formed and what one can do to prevent it.

I just had to take a photo of my plate. It is an integral part of this post. Why? Soon enough you’ll know why.

I took photos of the presentation so you can better understand the basic relationship of dental hygiene, tooth decay and food.

Having tooth decay is a multifactorial disease. What does this mean? It means that you need more than two factors for it to happen. In this case, you need three. First, you must have tooth in order to have a tooth decay (may point nga naman), second in order for decay to happen, you must eat food (not necessarily sweets alone ha), lastly, bacteria plays a big after you’ve eaten.

Here’s the photo presented to us as the early stage of tooth decay. Hay, Gabbie has these white spots on her teeth which are called as milk cavities. Cavities is the hollow part of the tooth, the area where the structure of the tooth is damaged. This can stop from getting worse if proper dental hygiene is made but sometimes, it can get worse and may lead to serious damage to the teeth.

One of the worst kinds of pain I believe is having a tooth ache. No tough gal nor guy can ever stand it. I hate it. It’s like having a tiny pain in your mouth but is connected to your brain, making it unbearable. So it is hard to see a child suffer from tooth ache because it can affect him or her in a lot of ways, sometimes it can even lead to death.

In short, the bacterial eats the sugar from the food you eat and produces acid that causes tooth decay. The more sugar your food has, the more for MS to eat causing more acid in your mouth that makes tooth decay.

What to do? Brush, brush, brush your teeth after every meal. So that the acid level in your mouth will neutralize therefore, there’s less chance for bacteria build up. Also, drink water after and use products with Xylitol.

What is Xylitol you ask?

Xylitol is a 100% natural sweetener that was first derived from birch trees in the 20^th century. Initially discovered and used as a sugar substitute, this sweetener is comparable to table sugar or sucrose—but with only two-thirds the food energy and 75% of the calories. Xylitol is sweeter than sorbitol and is as sweet as sucrose, making it the ideal substitute to cavity-causing sweeteners.

Now you ask, what does Xylitol do?

Note that Xylitol can only help teeth in the early stage of tooth decay. If it’s more than white marks on your teeth, you have to see your dentist.

Chew 2 pellet of Xylitol 4 times a day for a healthier mouth. Make it your gum habit today!

Soi Kitaguchi GM of Lotte Confectionery Pilipinas Corp, Dr. Fina Lopez, Therese Reyes of Lotte and Dr. Angelo Fernandez.

Soi Kitaguchi and the Xylitol Believers L-R seated Martine De Luna, Jackie Go and Frances Sales ; Standing Rowena Wendy Lei, Christine Dychiao,Ginger Arboleda and Fleur Sombrero

Thank you Lotte Xylitol for giving me the opportunity to become one of your brand believers.

Thank you for my loot too! Yay!

I’ll talk more about Xylitol’s Make It Zero campaign on my next post.

Lotte Xylitol dental health gum is available in bottles and blister packs, and comes in three exciting flavors: Blueberry Mint, Fresh Mint, and Lime Mint. Lotte Xylitol is reasonably priced and can be found in leading supermarkets and drugstores across the Philippines.

For more information, visit http://www.lottexylitolgum.com/.