Effect of sweets made with and without sucrose on the dental plaque, and the correlation between the extent of plaque and human dental caries experience

Abstract

The effects on plaque of boiled sweets made from sucrose and experimental sweets made from wheat-starch hydrolysates were compared. Equal groups of 18 students ate 454 g of the samples of sweets in addition to their normal diet over a 3-day period, without brushing their teeth. The extent of the plaque covering the teeth, plaque carbohydrate level and the carbohydrate: protein ratio were significantly raised after the sucrose sweets. Most of the carbohydrate appeared to be in the form of “dextran”, but traces of fructose from levans, glucose and sucrose were also detected. Significant correlations were found (a) between the mean plaque score per tooth and the dry-weight of plaque collected; and (b) between plaque scores and caries experience.