ARE SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE-CONTAINING TOOTHPASTES SUITABLE VEHICLES FOR XYLITOL

The hypothesis to be tested in this study was that toothpastes contain ing sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is unsuitable vehicles for xylitol. Th e bacteriostatic (and cariostatic) effect of xylitol is assumed to be caused by intracellular accumulation of xylitol-5-P in plaque bacteria . Experiments were designed to investigate whether presence of SLS wou ld affect the uptake of xylitol by interacting with the bacterial memb ranes and thus inhibit xylitol-5-P formation. It was shown in an in vi tro study that even very low concentrations of the strong anionic dete rgent SLS inhibited uptake of xylitol and xylitol-5-phosphate formatio n by dental plaque totally. The mild nonionic detergent ethoxylated st earyl alcohol (30x EO) had no such effect. In vivo experiments with to othpastes containing xylitol and either the strong or the mild deterge nt, showed that xylitol in toothpaste with SLS was not available for t he plaque bacteria and gave no adaptation to xylitol, whereas in the p resence of 30x EO it was available, and a xylitol adaptation was obser ved. Glucose metabolism, which was also studied for the plaque samples , was not significantly affected by presence of any of the 2 detergent s, indicating that the amounts of xylitol in toothpastes were presumab ly too low to give clinical significant effects, even when mild deterg ents are used.