It is going to be hard, though not impossible I guess, to write out a short testimony that spans the last 4 years or so. My grandson, at 18 months old, was diagnosed with severe ECC [Early Childhood Caries]. A $3400 dental bill plus hospital bill, etc. and not a very nice mouth of teeth. We were told he needed the upper front 4 teeth extracted, 2 baby root canals, and 16 fillings…this all in baby teeth!We had some pretty horrific situations with Pediatric Dentist’s, everything from straddling; physically holding down; strapping the little guy down; this little boy was literally terrified to go to a dentist.
So before committing this to take place I asked my daughter to let me research baby teeth and how to heal them – if there was such a thing – on the internet. I found lots of interesting information BUT all of it would take time to halt what was taking place in my grandson’s mouth. Eventually I read about a stuff called Xylitol. What I read excited me, but I am a cautious grandma, so I searched out every dentist I could find who used the stuff and came across Dr. Ellie’s site http://www.zellies.com. At first, it was just reading, I read literally everything on her site, then I wrote to Dr. Ellie and not only did she respond back, but she actually called my daughter to encourage her.

At that point we started in earnest to use Xylitol with Trenton. We bought, still do, zellies candies, gum, Spiffie tooth wipes, SPRY Rain, the crystals…everything. And we have been doing this ever since. 6 to 10 grams of Xylitol daily. We also use ACT Bubblegum rinse twice daily. That was back in 2007.

Just recently [2011], my grandson had a tooth pushing through the gum, crumbling another tooth so we took him to a new dentist who was ever so gentle and walked/talked him through the whole procedure, as he extracted the crumbling tooth. He told us that Trenton looked like he had a few cavities and he wanted to fill them; I was terrified. My first thought was “All that for nothing!” Even though he still had most of his teeth [he lost one to breaking the root] and then this one that was just extracted because of another tooth coming in, but…however I’ve learned that once the cavities are stopped or halted they turn a browny/grayish color; but the cavities are dead. Stopped in their tracks…

My daughter said we had been using Xylitol and the hygienist made the statement that ‘Xylitol didn’t heal or remineralize teeth’, when Christina told me that, my first thought was we need to get Dr. Ellie to intervene if she would.

She not only would, she did and when I took my grandson back to the dentist his words to me were, “I had a long talk with Dr. Ellie about Xylitol, and what we’re going to do is use the Xylitol and then paint his teeth with a fluoride varnish.” WOW!! Hurray for Dr. Ellie! He went out for a few seconds and when he came back in he was exclaiming, “If I wasn’t a believer before, I definitely am now!” He handed Amy, the hygienist, and me a small packet that said, “Fluoride Varnish with Xylitol” on it from the American Pediatric Dental Association!

Thank you Dr. Ellie for caring and for sharing.
Nita McMullan
Gentry, AR 72734