Adhesion of Foods to Teeth

¹ University of Alabama School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama

The adhesiveness of 77 foods to teeth was measured in an adhesion tester specially designed and constructed for this purpose. The adhesion test involved measurement of the tensile force required to break a bond between food-saliva mixtures and the enamel surface of teeth. It was observed that the effects of surface roughness and organic pellicles on the adhesion of foods to teeth were relatively minor in comparison with the wide range of adhesion for different foods. The volume of saliva incorporated during chewing was fairly constant for each food, even though samples were collected from 4 different subjects, who chewed for widely varying lengths of time and at different chewing rates.