Feeding Regimes and Caries

¹ Department of Preventive Dentistry, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

The eating regime that influences an individual's caries activity is characterized by intake factors and elimination factors, which are modified by a number of variables, some of which are shown at the top of Figure 5. The factors "eating" plus "retention" are positively correlated with the duration of availability of substrate for the oral flora, which (influenced by metabolic and time factors) will finally determine the strength of the attacking forces proper, acid formation and amount of plaque.

The eating habits of experimental animals may be strongly modified by minor variables, which must be detected and controlled to avoid misinterpretation of results.