Changes in buccal white spots during 2-year consumption of dietary sucrose or xylitol

The purpose of the present study was to quantitate changes in buccal white-spot lesions during sucrose and xylitol consumption. Standardized color macrophotographs of white-spot lesions were taken 7 months after the beginning and at the end of the 2-year study. The quantification was based on the planimetry of these photographs. The area of white-spot lesions decreased in the xylitol group in absolute values (p less than 0.01) and in percentages (p less than 0.001). In the sucrose group the area of white-spot lesions increased in absolute values (p less than 0.05) and in percentages (p less than 0.01) during the 17-month observation period. The stereomicroscopic evaluation gave a similar result; the ordinally quantified caries scores (CIS) increased in the sucrose group and decreased in the xylitol group, and the difference between the groups was highly significant (p less than 0.001). Thus the present findings showed that xylitol consumption caused remineralization of incipient white-spot lesions on buccal surfaces.