The Effect of Carbohydrates on Experimental Caries in the Rat

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Abstract
48 rats were placed for 6 weeks on the Hoppert-Webber-Canniff (HWC) diet, after which 13 of the rats were given a diet made by adding an equal wt. of powdered confectioner''s sugar to the HWC diet. These diets were fed for the remainder of the expt. of 104 days. On the avg., the exptl. rats developed the same number of carious teeth and the same number of cusps missing per rat as did the control rats. The exptl. rats exhibited twice as many teeth totally destroyed as did the control rats. Apparently, excessive amts. of sugar do not initiate rat caries but lead to rapid extension of existing cavities. 122 male and female rats were placed on HWC diets for 8 weeks. 20 rats fed coarse corn and 13 rats fed fine corn were sacrificed at that time; the avg. caries scores were 4.8 and 2.6, respectively. The remaining rats were divided into groups of 12-16 each, and they were fed diets containing (a) corn ground coarse or fine, and (b) low or high carbohydrate content, but without corn particles. The rats fed high carbohydrate diets in each instance had higher avg. caries scores than those maintained on the low carbohydrate diet. 180 rats were placed on a specially modified HWC diet in which a synthetic milk replaced the powdered milk usually included. The synthetic milk contained a single sugar, sucrose or glucose; in a control group, uncooked starch was added in an equivalent amts. After 8 additional weeks on these continuation diets, on the basis of either whole mouth or tooth-by-tooth comparison, it was shown that rats fed uncooked corn starch had less progress of cavitation than rats fed fermentable sugars.