Carious Lesions in Cotton Rat Molars

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Abstract
The right maxillary molars of 25 weanling cotton rats (Sigmondon hispidus) were extracted. For a period of 14 wks. thereafter, these cotton rats were fed a purified ration of high caries-producing properties. The number and extent of the carious lesions in the sulci of the right and left mandibular molars were detd. and compared at the end of the expt. Previous studies of the white rat maintained on coarse particle rations have indicated that when the maxillary molars were extracted, there was a lower incidence of carious lesions in those mandibular molars which had had no antagonistic molars. In contrast, the extraction of maxillary molars in the cotton rat had little effect on the initiation and progress of the carious lesions in the sulci of those mandibular molars which had not been subject to the stress of mastication. There was a slightly lower incidence and extent of tooth decay in the sulci of the mandibular molars which had had no opposing molars but this reduction was in no way comparable to the large reduction observed under similar circumstances in the white rat. These data would seem to indicate that the mechanical factors involved in the process of masticating the purified ration used in cotton rat studies were not as great nor as important in the etiology of carious lesions as those factors involved in the mastication of the coarse particle diets used in white rat expts.
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