Potentiating Effects of Prenatal X-Irradiation on Dental Caries in the Rat.

Abstract
X-irradiation during certain periods of prenatal development significantly increased the severity of dental caries in rats maintained on a cariogenic skim milk-containing ration. The offspring of rats given a single dose of I50 r X-irradiation on the 10th or 14th day of pregnancy showed a significant increase in severity of carles over that of the offspring of non-irradiated rats. Severity of caries was not increased in the offspring of rats given a similar dose of X-irradiation on the 18th day of pregnancy.