The effects on the gingivae of chewing fibrous foods.

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken to study the changes in the gingivae of a group of human subjects whose only active effort at oral cleanliness was to chew raw carrots. Eighteen male dental students 20–24 years of age, were studied using the Gingival Index system (GI) of Löe and Silness (1963), the Plaque Index system (P1I) of Silness and Löe (1964) and gingival exudates measurements according to Egelberg (1964). The participants were told not to use any active oral hygiene measures for a period of eighteen days. During this time, nine of the students were given three raw carrots three times a day. These were carefully chewed for two to three minutes under supervision.That the regular chewing of raw carrots had no influence on the degree of plaque formation, is proved by the fact that at no examination was the difference between the Plaque Index scores of the experimental and the control groups statistically significant. Thus, the active mastication of the raw carrots appeared to have no significant toothcleansing effect.This investigation has also demonstrated that, when all active tooth cleansing is discontinued, healthy gingivae will develop chronic inflammation and pre‐existing gingivitis will gradually become aggravated. The Gingival Index scores and exudate measurements clearly indicate a gradual deterioration of the gingivae of all the subjects throughout the eighteen days of experiment.The increases in the GI‐values and in the gingival exudation were of the same magnitude in both the experimental and the control groups. This shows that the chewing of fibrous food had no influence on the rate of deterioration of the gingivae when no tooth‐cleansing was practiced.