A Survey of the Incidence of Dental Caries in the Rhesus Monkey

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Abstract
A survey of the frequency of dental caries incidence in the skulls of 138 young rhesus monkeys indicated that the susceptibility to tooth decay under certain exptl. conditions was higher than had been reported previously. These monkeys had been maintained for periods varying from a few days to 3 yrs. on various nutritionally adequate and deficient, purified rations. The frequency of carious lesions increased with the length of time that the monkeys were fed these diets. Of the 44 monkeys which had been on expt. for less than 3 mos., only 6 had carious lesions; however, 8 of 9 monkeys which had been on expt. from 2-3 yrs. had carious lesions. From this survey it appeared that the rhesus monkey had a sufficiently high susceptibility to tooth decay to warrant the extensive use of this sp. in dental caries research. However, an exptl. period of at least 2 yrs. would be necessary for a satisfactory assay of any causative or preventive treatment upon the caries incidence in the rhesus monkey.

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