Calcification. XXVI. Caries Susceptibility in Relation to Composition of Teeth and Diet

¹ Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn and Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Studies of caries susceptibility were undertaken to test the hypothesis that low-carbonate teeth are less caries-susceptible than high-carbonate teeth. Split litters of cotton rats were fed high-phosphate-low-calcium and low-phosphate-high-calcium diets for 4 weeks to produce low-carbonate and high-carbonate teeth. This was followed by high-sucrose cariogenic diets with similar calcium and phosphate content, respectively, for 12-14 weeks. At the end of the experimental period, serum calcium was lower, serum phosphate was higher, and the CO₃:PO₄ ratio of both femora and the tibias were lower in animals fed the high-phosphate-low-calcium regimens. These animals were significantly less susceptible to dental caries than were animals on the low-phosphate-high-calcium diet. Both the number and the extent of carious lesions were reduced to about half in animals fed the high-phosphate-low-calcium diet.

Although it has been confirmed in several laboratories under a variety of conditions that diets high in soluble phosphate are cariostatic, it is not possible at present to determine which of the following factors produced the cariostatic effect: (1) systemic effect on serum composition, influencing tooth composition and solubility; (2) systemic effect on saliva composition, influencing tooth composition and solubility; (3) direct oral effect due to solution of dietary phosphate in saliva, which may influence tooth composition and solubility and may neutralize bacterial acids, as well as interact in other ways with the bacterial flora.

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				TOOTH DEVELOPMENT (continued from page 116) The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, March 1, 1965; 85(2): 127 - 127.