Prolonged Effect on Caries of Short-Term Feeding of Rice Hulls to Cotton Rats

¹ University of Texas Dental Branch, Houston, Texas

The anticariogenicity of rice hulls in the cotton-rat diet was demonstrated by feeding them for only 10 days of a 98-day assay period. These short-term feeding periods prevented caries initiation and arrested caries that had developed for as long as 40 days. The major influence of rice hulls on caries production in the cotton rat was exerted during the first 10 days of exposure of the weanling rat to the hulls. Exposure of the newly erupted first and second molars to rice hulls during this period made them resistant for a subsequent period of 88 days. The early exposure of the weanling rat to hulls also reduced caries in the third molars, which erupted several weeks after weaning. In this study, the rice hulls reduced caries primarily in the maxillary molars.

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