(no subject)

[the_rck]

The xylitol gum and hard candies my dentist gave me samples of yesterday appear to be only barely available in the US. I did some minimal googling, and the brand (Miradent) seems to be Australian. Amazon carries the stuff in a very limited range of flavors (mostly mint) that are very, very expensive. $35 (plus shipping!) for 200 small pieces of gum seems far too much. There's a manufacturer site (Hager Worldwide) that prices the same thing at $33 (I can't figure out the shipping costs), but they seem to only sell to 'dental dealers' and not direct to customers. I found one dental dealer website, but they won't sell to 'consumers,' only to dental offices and won't reveal prices to anyone who isn't logged in.

It's a pity because Cordelia and I have been enjoying the gum. My psychiatrist very strongly suggested gum as something that would help my dry mouth, but I've had an awful time finding something that didn't contain aspartame.

I suppose I can call my dentist and ask if they can sell me more gum, but I suspect the prices would be beyond what I'm willing to pay.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Xylitol, no aspartame, is actually fairly easy to find if you are willing to try other gum brands. Do you need hat specific one?

If not, searching "xylitol gum" on Amazon turns up lots of options - you'll want to make sure they're aspartame-free, but at least some are. Pur gum, for example, which includes a cinnamon flavor. Under $7 for 60 small pieces of gum (and prime-eligible, if your prime situation has sorted out or Scott orders them).

Or Epic Dental, Fresh Fruit flavor - $15 for 150.

Still expensive, but not *quite* as expensive....

[the_rck]

I don't need that specific brand. I've just never seen a gum in the store, apart from sugared Bubble Yum, that didn't have aspartame, so I was surprised when my dentist told me that such a thing existed. I searched for this brand because I knew it was completely safe.

[antisoppist]

Xylitol is big in Finland, I think because they originally produced it from birch trees. I'd never heard of it before I lived there but all their chewing gum and most of their sweets contained it. It might be worth looking at online Nordic food retailers, but I don't know whether exchange rates and shipping costs would make it pricier than your other options.

[the_rck]

Thanks for the information! I'll look and see what I can find.

[untonuggan]

I have special anti-dry mouth toothpaste because the gum sets off my TMJ? You might be able to find that or maybe the mouthwash would be more to your liking? Not sure about aspartame content, but am *hoping* it's less in fucking toothpaste. You never know though. I use Biotene after the whole receding-gums fiasco and it's been helping *a lot*.

[the_rck]

We bought a big bottle of Biotene about a month ago, but I can't use it. It tastes so very, very bad that I can't bring myself to put it in my mouth a second time. The one time I did use it, the nasty taste lingered every bit as long as the helpful effect did.

To me, it tastes kind of like certain ointments (bacitracin, mycitracin) smell. It also reminds me a bit of lidocane.

[bewsbud.livejournal.com]

I've used xylitol gum and candies for almost ten years, (since chemo damaged my salivary glands).
There's no reason to pay that much for it.

Trident makes a xylitol gum that sells in stores.
There are probably others, but that's what I used to buy.

I'm not sure what you searched under at Amazon, but they have several types and flavors of xylitol gum and candy .
Try searching under "Grocery & Gourmet Food".

I used to buy my hard candies from Dr. John's, (http://www.drjohns.com).
They carry a lot of different flavors in candies, (around $12 a pound), and lollipops.
They have a smaller selection on Amazon.


I buy the Healthy Grid xylitol candies from Amazon, but the individual candies are large enough that I wouldn't want to give one to a child.

[the_rck]

Every type of Trident gum I've ever seen in the stores contained aspartame. It's not always the only sweetener, but it's always one of them. I'm allergic to aspartame and have had issues with sucralose, so I'm very, very wary of anything marketed as sugarfree because I very rarely see anything that doesn't contain one or both of those. (We've only found one kind of sugared gum that doesn't contain aspartame-- Bubble Yum for some reason hasn't gone there. Unfortunately, a lot of stores don't carry Bubble Yum any longer, so we have to search for it.)

I'm okay with xylitol and stevia as sweeteners, and I'm trying out something with erythritol today-- Zevia pop is sweetened with stevia, erythritol, and monk fruit. It's horrifically sweet and kind of nasty, but I finished the can because I'd started it. I should know in a couple of days if there aren't going to be any ill effects. Sucralose gives me trouble very quickly, but aspartame takes a day or two.

I don't expect I'll ever be enthusiastic about Zevia, but Scott and Cordelia like it, and Scott's parents have gotten really into it since his father developed diabetes.

But aspartame and sucralose are in all sorts of things where you wouldn't expect it-- A lot of yogurt companies, for example, add aspartame now, even to the types of yogurts that aren't supposed to be low cal/low sugar. Scott doesn't check for aspartame when he buys yogurt because I rarely eat it (and I rarely eat it because he doesn't remember to check). Microwave kettle corn pretty much always has sucralose instead of sugar (which might be because sucralose doesn't burn when the popcorn gets microwaved). I also have to be cautious of OTC cold and cough medicines because a lot of those use sucralose.

When I googled, I just looked for 'Miradent,' the brand name on the samples my dentist gave me. I saw the ingredients lists for those before she gave them to me and know for sure that they're safe for me. Anything else seems a lot riskier.

[bewsbud.livejournal.com]

I can't handle aspartame. It makes me extremely ill.
Xylitol is the only sweetener I use, (aside from sugar).

Trident does have a type of gum that only uses xylitol for a sweetener.
No aspartame, sucralose, just xylitol.

Dr. John's was recommended to me by my periodontist.
She's well aware that my sensitivity to aspartame landed me in the ER twice.
I'm certain she wouldn't suggest a risky product to me.

I was curious why Miradent appeared safer than other brands, and I found it online at drugstore.com for $29.95.
You might want to check other online drugstores, (walgreen's, cvs, etc.).

[the_rck]

It's not so much that Miradent is necessarily safer. It's just that that's what my dentist had and so is the only brand for which I've seen a full ingredient list.

[booniverse.livejournal.com]

Have you looked into Japanese gum? They use a lot of Xylitol but I do not know their artificial sweetener. I reviewed a couple in the JSFR many years ago which were pretty tasty. Next time I'm out in an Asian food store I can pick some up and have my Japanese speaking coworker look for the sweetener. If it's aspartame I'll gladly eat it myself. If not, you could try it. It would be a LOT cheaper than Australian gum through Amazon.

[the_rck]

Several people has suggested US brands that might do just as well, so I think I'll explore those first.

Someone on DreamWidth also suggested that I look into Finnish gums because xylitol is the most popular sweetener there. The impression she gave me is that it might actually be more popular than sugar there due to being easier to come by (it's made from birch).

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

These seem somewhat cheaper. I think Epic comes in cinnamon, fruit, and mint. I only saw Xlear in mint and fruit. They both claim not to have any aspartame or sucralose.

http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Dental-Xylitol-Sweetened-500-piece/dp/B00L1VY09E/ref=pd_sbs_194_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=06GP55HKHA95TEKFJGKY
http://www.amazon.com/Xlear-Natural-Xylitol-Peppermint-Count/dp/B00124WBCS/ref=pd_sim_194_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HF7VY73D3X7N04E6YVW
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YIQP4O?psc=1

Unfortunately, if you want a relatively low price per piece, you have to order one of the huge packages and gamble on whether you're going to like how it tastes.

[the_rck]

Scott is still hoping that we can find something local, but the only places that are likely to carry such a thing are Whole Foods and Plum Market which are all a fair distance away. I can't imagine that we'll make extra trips to any store just to buy a pack of gum. That might change if we actually do get a Plum Market on Plymouth Road, but that's still years away, if it happens at all.

I'm not sure that it wouldn't be cheaper to buy in bulk online. I'm going to go through a lot of gum if I have access to it because it really does help with the dry mouth. (I tried Biotene, and it was so nasty I haven't been able to bring myself to use it again even though it did help. It tasted kind of like lidocaine and kind of like ointments like bacitracin smell.)

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Can you get to the People's Food Coop? (Does it even still exist?) I was a store that seemed like a local near equivalent, and they had several kinds of xylitol gum, $1 or so for a packet of 10 or 12, so you can see if you like the flavor.

I had no idea Biotene gum tasted so awful. I'm sorry.

[the_rck]

I've talked to several other people who use Biotene, and they think it tastes just kind of neutral, so this seems to be something idiosyncratic to me. And we bought the mouthwash, not the gum. I don't think Scott saw anything but the mouthwash.

The People's Food Coop still exists, but it's harder to get to than either Whole Foods or Plum Market because it's in an area where there is very seldom parking available (it doesn't have parking of its own). I could get there by bus if I could walk as far as the bus stop (I can't yet), but I'd be very hesitant to try to carry anything I bought home with me unless it was small enough to fit in my purse. A pack of gum would probably work but not much more.