Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B G Bibby.
Anthropologic publications on the Indians that lived in northeast America between 1000 BC and 1810 AD have been studied to find out whether maple sugar and corn should be blamed for extensive caries found among these tribes. Insufficient information on the use of maple sugar could be found to justify claiming that it was an important cause.
As part of a major study to identify cariogenic elements of foods, the cariogenic potential of 22 foods relative to sucrose (confectioners' sugar) was determined over six intubation rat caries experiments. Cariogenic potential indices were calculated for each food from sulcal and buccal-lingual caries based on both number and severity. Those foods with the lowest cariogenic potential indices were peanuts, gelatin dessert, corn chips, yoghurt, and bologna; with the highest cariogenic potential indices were sucrose, granola cereal, french fries, bananas, cupcakes, and raisins. There was no simple relationship between food sucrose content and caries. Enhanced cariogenic potential was associated with foods containing approximately 1% or more hydrolyzable starch in combination with sucrose or other sugars.
Carbohydrate clearance, plaque pH, and saliva pH resulting from eating foods containing high levels of sugar or starch were measured in the same experimental runs on the same test subjects. Foods with a higher content of sugar were removed more rapidly and depressed the pH of the plaque for a shorter time than did starchy foods containing less sugar. This finding suggests that retention of food in the mouth may be as important an indicator of its cariogenic potential as is the level of the pH it produces in plaque.
A method that holds human dental plaque on a glass micro-electrode has been used to measure the pH depressions in plaque samples exposed to different concentrations of fluoride from sodium fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate. Fluoride from both sources gave some inhibition of sucrose-induced acid formation at levels as low as 10 ppm and parallel results at other test concentrations of up to 200 ppm F. Repeated exposures of plaque to fluoride solutions did not interfere with its subsequent ability to ferment sucrose.
A combination pH micro-electrode inserted into human plaque centrifuged to the base of a closely-fitting fine-mesh wire "basket" has been used to make continuous recordings of the pH responses produced by exposure to various carbohydrate substrates. The pH depressions given by continued immersion in sugar and starch solutions resemble, both in depth and duration, those obtained by telemetric pH measurements of approximal plaque samples. In contrast, brief exposure to sugar solutions will produce a Stephan type of pH curve. Measurements of pH can be made using a succession of different substrates if, after each substrate is tested, the electrode-plaque assembly is washed with water and its acidity neutralized in circulating saliva. It is suggested that this in vitro pH method could be used instead of the telemetric measurements of approximal plaque for comparing acid production from foods or for other purposes.
To indicate the cariogenic potential of some standard foods and confections, their ability to demineralize powdered enamel or enamel sections was tested by incubation with mouth organisms in saliva or plaque. With a few exceptions, the amounts of demineralization produced by the tested substrates in either a closed or flowing system fell within relatively narrow ranges.
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Additions of milk solids to laboratory "cakes" made of sucrose and starch reduced in vitro (Orofax) "caries" and the dissolution of granular enamel, but increased the amounts of fermentation acids produced. Withdrawal of the milk component of ice cream, yogurt, and chocolate milk resulted in increased Orofax "caries".
A method is described for growing plaques in vitro in a flow of human saliva. Similarities between these in vitro plaques and natural in vivo plaques are seen in physical properties, bacterial composition, and pH response to sucrose solution.
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The relationship between the frequency of eating various snack foods, socioeconomic variables, and an increment in caries was studied in 143 adolescents. There were negative correlations between DMFT increments and the frequency of apples, fruit juice, and sugarless gum intake, and a positive association of DMFT increments with chocolate candy intake and spending money.
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Gingival hyperplasia was studied in 13 boys with epilepsy living in a state hospital. Boys were selected on the basis of having gingival hyperplasia, having all teeth between cuspids (upper and lower), having no occlusal abnormality and being cooperative. After gingivectomy, regrowth of gingiva was compared around lateral incisors on one side of the mouth having operator-assisted oral hygiene with that around lateral incisors on the other side of the mouth without operator-assisted oral hygiene. Regrowth of tissue was documented by precise photogrammetry. Oral hygiene, gingival inflammation and crevicular fluid were monitored. Less inflammation, less crevicular fluid and less regrowth of gingival tissues occurred around teeth subjected to good oral hygiene. Precise periodic photographic documentation of the clinical status of patients during studies such as this is considered very valuable.
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A survey of the relationship between caries prevalence and the consumption of sugar and other foods by man has been interpreted to show that snack foods share importance with sucrose in caries causation. Support for this conclusion is found in animal experiments and some in vitro and in vivo tests.
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