306
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Role of Sugar and Sugar Substitutes in Dental Caries: A Review

      review-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Dental caries is a chronic disease which can affect us at any age. The term “caries” denotes both the disease process and its consequences, that is, the damage caused by the disease process. Dental caries has a multifactorial aetiology in which there is interplay of three principal factors: the host (saliva and teeth), the microflora (plaque), and the substrate (diet), and a fourth factor: time. The role of sugar (and other fermentable carbohydrates such as highly refined flour) as a risk factor in the initiation and progression of dental caries is overwhelming. Whether this initial demineralization proceeds to clinically detectable caries or whether the lesion is remineralized by plaque minerals depends on a number of factors, of which the amount and frequency of further sugars consumption are of utmost importance. This paper reviews the role of sugar and sugar substitutes in dental caries.

          Related collections

          Most cited references55

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          The Vipeholm dental caries study; the effect of different levels of carbohydrate intake on caries activity in 436 individuals observed for five years.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Xylitol chewing gums and caries rates: a 40-month cohort study.

            Dental caries is a pandemic infectious disease which can affect the quality of life and consumes considerable health care resources. The chewing of xylitol, sorbitol, and even sugar gum has been suggested to reduce caries rates. No clinical study has simultaneously investigated the effectiveness of these gums when compared with a group receiving no chewing gum. A 40-month double-blind cohort study on the relationship between the use of chewing gum and dental caries was performed in 1989-1993 in Belize, Central America. One thousand two hundred and seventy-seven subjects (mean age, 10.2 years) were assigned to nine treatment groups: one control group (no supervised gum use), four xylitol groups (range of supervised xylitol consumption: 4.3 to 9.0 g/day), two xylitol-sorbitol groups (range of supervised consumption of total polyols: 8.0 to 9.7 g/day), one sorbitol group (supervised consumption: 9.0 g/day). The gum use during school hours was supervised. Four calibrated dentists performed the caries registrations by means of a modified WHO procedure. The primary endpoint was the development of an unequivocal caries lesion on a non-cavitated tooth surface. Compared with the no-gum group, sucrose gum usage resulted in a marginal increase in the caries rate (relative risk, 1.20; 95% confidence interval,0.96 to 1.49; p = 0.1128). Sorbitol gum significantly reduced caries rates (relative risk 0.74; 95% confidence interval, 0.6 to 0.92 ; p = 0.0074). The four xylitol gums were most effective in reducing caries rates, the most effective agent being a 100% xylitol pellet gum (relative risk, 0.27; 95% confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.36; p = 0.0001). This gum was superior to any other gum (p < 0.01). The xylitol-sorbitol mixtures were less effective than xylitol, but they reduced caries rates significantly compared with the no-gum group. DMFS analyses were consistent with these conclusions. The results suggest that systematic usage of polyol-based chewing gums reduces caries rates in young subjects, with xylitol gums being more effective than sorbitol gums.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              The effects of sugars intake and frequency of ingestion on dental caries increment in a three-year longitudinal study.

              A three-year longitudinal study was carried out with a group of children, initially aged 11-15, residing in non-fluoridated rural communities in south-central Michigan. This report analyzes the relation between caries increment and consumption of sugars from all sources to see if accepted relationships have changed with the caries decline in the United States. There were 499 children who provided three or more 24-hour dietary recall interviews, and who received dental examinations at baseline and after three years. Caries increment averaged 2.91 DMFS over the three years, with 81% of new lesions on pit-and-fissure surfaces. Consumption of sugars from all sources averaged 156 g per day for males and 127 g per day for females, an average of 52 kg per person per year. Sugars constituted one-quarter of total caloric intake for both boys and girls, and the average number of eating occasions per day was 4.3. Children who consumed a higher proportion of their total energy intake as sugars had a higher increment of approximal caries, though there was little relation to pit-and-fissure caries. The average number of daily eating occasions was not related to caries increment, nor was the average number of sugary snacks (defined as foods with 15% or more of sugars) consumed between meals, but the average consumption of between-meal sugars was related to the approximal caries increment. When children were categorized by high caries increment compared with no caries increment, a tendency toward more frequent snacks was seen in the high-caries children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                ISRN Dent
                ISRN Dent
                ISRN.DENTISTRY
                ISRN Dentistry
                Hindawi Publishing Corporation
                2090-4371
                2090-438X
                2013
                29 December 2013
                : 2013
                : 519421
                Affiliations
                1Department of Public Health Dentistry, Dasmesh Institute of Research and Dental Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India
                2Department of Prosthodontics, Dasmesh Institute of Research and Dental Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab 151203, India
                3Department of Oral Pathology, Aditya Dental College, Beed, Maharashtra 431122, India
                4Department of Oral Pathology, Vishnu Dental College and Hospital, Bhimavaram 534 202, India
                5Department of Orthodontics, Dasmesh Institute of Research and Dental Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India
                6Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Dasmesh Institute of Research and Dental Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India
                Author notes
                *Harkanwal Preet Singh: hkps0320@ 123456gmail.com

                Academic Editors: M. Behr and G. H. Sperber

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7001-7444
                Article
                10.1155/2013/519421
                3893787
                24490079
                a10dbc52-5c30-4ff2-959b-6686f8b3133f
                Copyright © 2013 Prahlad Gupta et al.

                This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 3 September 2013
                : 6 November 2013
                Categories
                Review Article

                Dentistry
                Dentistry

                Comments

                Comment on this article