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Xlear CEO Nate Jones, left, stands with his employees at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore Xlear display in September.

Courtesy Xlear

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Xlear Inc.'s display at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore during Sept. 22-24, 2016.

Courtesy Xlear

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Utah County residents might not realize there’s a line of products developed and manufactured right here in American Fork located in drugstores throughout Utah and the nation.

Xlear Inc. has been in business since 2000, based on xylitol research by Dr. Alonzo Jones. Nate Jones is Dr. Jones’ son and the Xlear CEO. Many years ago, in his father’s pediatrics practice, he saw his father mixing up a formula to give to his patients to treat sinus and ear infections. His father’s patients swore by it, so Nate asked his father what it was. It was a xylitol-based nasal spray mixture.

“My father had been reading a bunch of dental research studies, and in this tiny little footnote, he found that those in the study who were taking xylitol gum were getting less cavities, yes, but also 40 percent fewer ear infections,” Nate Jones said.

His father was intrigued and researched further. Instead of gum, he opted to develop his own version into a nasal spray. He began seeing results almost immediately.

Nate Jones, with his father’s blessing, started a company based on his father’s invention. They crafted a Xlear product formulation and ran clinical studies. They brought the product to the market in June 2000.

From his beginning, in a small office doing quality control on every bottle himself, Nate Jones now is head of a company that is one of the leaders in the xylitol nasal spray and oral care industry. The nasal/sinus line is under the Xlear name, and the oral care line is under the Spry brand.

But what is so unique about xylitol?

Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar. Most other sugars, sugar alcohols and sweeteners have a six-carbon atoms. The bacteria that causes cavities and certain types of sinus-related infections thrives on a six-carbon atom environment. Xylitol as a sweetener mimics sugar in taste, but leaves nothing for the oral bacteria to live on.

“It changes the mouth environment so that bad bacteria can’t thrive,” Nate Jones said.

Xlear is the second largest buyer of raw xylitol in the United States. Most xylitol manufactured for consumption comes from corncobs harvested in China. Nate Jones said they can’t buy it here because, due to government sugar subsidies, it is not cost effective for farmers to harvest the cob.

Almost all of Xlear’s products are manufactured in its American Fork warehouse — from sprays to gums, to even a packaged sweetener. On one wall in Nate Jones’ office, he has a display of Xlear products next to its competitors, as he is constantly tweaking branding and coloring to draw a drugstore customer’s attention. Next to his father and only a few other experts in the field, Nate Jones just might one of the leading experts on xylitol’s benefits.

“I could talk about it for hours,” he said.

He had the chance to do just that Sept. 22-24 at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore. He launched Xlear’s new toothpaste line there, as a forerunner to the company’s future products addressing dry mouth and other oral issues. He’s also working on formulating xylitol-based cough drops.

“It’s ironic that when we have respiratory illnesses, we fill ourselves with sugar-laden cough syrups and lozenges — giving that bacteria more chance to grow,” he said.

Even though xylitol products are a small segment of the nasal and oral care industry, Nate Jones is a one-man xylitol advocate, backed by a successful million-dollar company.