Essential dependence of smooth surface caries on, and augmentation of fissure caries by, sucrose and Streptococcus mutans infection

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Abstract
S. mutans-free Osborne-Mendel rats were used to study the ability of well-characterized S. mutans strains of Bratthall serotypes c, d and E to form plaque and cause caries when the animals consumed sucrose- or glucose-containing diets. All of the serotype representatives successfully infected, colonized and emerged in the oral ecology of animals, independent of the carbohydrate supplementation of the diet. The sucrose-containing diet supported higher percentages of S. mutans of all the serotypes in the plaque and greater amounts of plaque on the teeth. Smooth surface caries was essentially S. mutans-dependent and sucrose-dependent; fissure caries, although neither dependent on S. mutans infection nor sucrose consumption, was augmented by both. This sucrose-associated emergence of all 3 serotype representatives in the plaque flora and their virulence in the production of caries can be ascribed to their production of alkali-soluble .alpha.-(1 .fwdarw. 3)-rich glucans from sucrose.