EFFECTS OF ASHED FOODSTUFFS ON DENTAL DECAY IN HAMSTERS

¹ Tufts Dental School, Boston, Mass., and Department of Food Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

1. The ash of a diet containing whole corn, whole milk powder, and alfalfa meal was mixed with an equivalent amount of the same diet, and fed to hamsters for 20 weeks, beginning at birth. A second group was fed this diet without ash supplementation.

2. The caries score of the group fed the ash-supplemented diet was 0.01. The score of the hamsters fed the control diet was 0.18. Thus, the ash of these natural foodstuffs exerted a caries-inhibitory action when fed in the diets of hamsters.

3. It is not known whether this action against tooth decay is exerted locally or systemically.