Review Article

Sugar Alcohols, Caries Incidence, and Remineralization of Caries Lesions: A Literature Review

Figure 3

A simplified presentation of the competition between water and xylitol molecules for Ca, assumed to play a role in environments involving whole-mouth saliva and plaque fluid. Here, Ca has interacted with six water molecules which constitute the primary hydration layer of the metal ion (the actual number of water molecules surrounding the spherical Ca ion may vary from 4 to 12). The resulting new hydration layer consists of water molecules and xylitol molecules. This leads to stabilization of the salivary Ca phosphate systems [14, 18]. Reproduced with permission [14].
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