Effect of Alloxan Diabetes on Fluoride Retention and Caries Incidence in Rats

¹ Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

Three experiments were conducted to assess the influence of the alloxan diabetic state in rats on the ingestion and retention of water-borne fluorides and to re-evaluate whether the diabetic state increased the rate of dental decay in these animals.

The fluoride ingestion from the water supply in the diabetic animals was three to five times that of their control counterparts, by reason of the increased water consumption caused by the dehydration due to diuresis in uncontrolled diabetes. However, the fluoride retention in the femurs of these diabetics was only two to three times that of their control littermates, suggesting that the excretion of fluorides in diabetic animals had been enhanced.

The rate of dental decay in the diabetic animals, whether receiving fluoride supplements or not, was found to be statistically significantly increased in comparison with their control littermates, except at levels of 20 p.p.m. fluoride.

Fluoride was not so effective in reducing caries in the diabetic animals at equivalent levels in the water as in intact animals, even though increases in the absolute ingestion of fluoride were involved.