RELATION OF FUNCTION TO CARIES RATE

¹ Dept. of Dental Research, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, Dental Dept., Montefiore Hospital, and Dept. of Physiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.

In an experiment designed to study the effects of vigorous mastication on caries incidence, over a period of eighteen months, 102 children received a daily supply of fibrous sugar cane which they chewed under supervision, 164 controls were again divided into two groups of which one received daily freshly milled cane juice, and the other neither cane nor juice.

The results obtained showed a 50 per cent reduction in the caries rate in the chewing group. A concept relating susceptibility to caries to metabolic changes in the tooth due to underfunction is set forth.

The major difficulties of the experiment were the obtaining of a steady palatable cane supply, and poor dentitions to start with in many of the children which made many in the chewing group unable to cope properly with the cane. The authors feel that the present results do not therefore necessarily reflect the limitations or optimal benefits obtainable from vigorous function as a physiological approach to induce caries immunity.