STUDIES OF THE MICROBIOLOGY OF CARIES

III. THE BUFFER CAPACITY OF THE DENTAL PLAQUES

¹ Dental College, Department for Operative Surgery, Stockholm, Sweden

The buffer capacity of dental plaques has been determined and compared with that of the saliva. It is found that the buffering is greater in the plaque than in the saliva, especially at the lower pH values. The importance of this fact to the understanding of the caries is discussed. It is suggested that the plaque has the ability to store the acid and to hinder the saliva from neutralizing it. It is showed that there is great resemblance between the buffering of the plaque and the sediment from centrifuged saliva.