The Influence of Impaired Salivary Function on Dental Caries in the Syrian Hamster

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Abstract
It has been extablished that dental caries will develop in Syrian hamsters which are maintained on a high sucrose diet provided they are less than 35 days of age at the onset of the expt. and are fed the diet for a minimum of 100 days. In an effort to determine the effect of the salivary glands upon this cariogenic process 25 hamsters were desalivated by the removal of the submaxillary and sublingual glands and the ligation and severing of the ducts of the parotid glands. 10 of these animals were placed on a modified Hoppert, Webber, Canniff diet containing 66% sucrose. 10 other were placed on the same diet except that cornstarch replaced the sucrose. The remaining 5 animals were continued on the diet of laboratory chow pellets. All animals irrespective of age or the length of time maintained on the diet developed carious lesions. The resulting caries scores were considerably higher in the sucrose fed desalivated hamsters than in normal animals. A moderate amt. of caries developed in the starch-fed desalivated animals even with the elimination of the normal amt. of salivary amylase. A minimal amount of caries was found in the animals continued on the standard laboratory diet. The caries pattern was altered to the extent that in all groups of desalivated animals the greatest amt. of destruction was on the 1st molar, somewhat less on the 2d and the least on the 3d. In normal hamsters maintained on a cariogenic diet the pattern is the reverse with the greatest damage to the 3d and the least to the 1st molar.