IMPORTANCE OF TYPE OF DIET DURING THE SUCKLING PERIOD ON THE INCIDENCE OF EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL CARIES IN RATS

¹ Department of Chemistry and School of Dentistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

1. Newly erupted teeth are particularly susceptible to a cariogenic diet. This is indicated by the following: (a) There was a higher incidence of caries in rats on a coarsely ground corn diet as compared with controls given a finely ground low-cariogenic diet until the thirtieth day of age and then fed the coarsely ground corn diet. (b) Apparent strain differences in rats were shown instead to be due to differences in the diet during the first five weeks. When a low-cariogenic diet was fed during the first four weeks, rats had a rather low incidence of dental caries even when a coarsely ground corn diet was fed for 140 days.

2. Stannous fluoride afforded more protection to rats' caries in the second generation than did either sodium fluoride or stannous chloride, but the degree of protection was considerably reduced over the protection observed in parents (first generation) receiving similar fluoride supplements.