Furquim Teresa Rodrigues D'Áurea, Poli-Frederico Regina Célia, Maciel Sandra Mara, Gonini-Júnior Alcides, Walter Luiz Reynaldo Figueiredo
Department of Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Northern Paraná, Londrina, Brazil.
Oral Health Prev Dent. 2010;8(3):253-9.
The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether sensitivity to bitter taste and perception of sweet taste have an influence on dental caries in urban and rural areas.
The caries experience in 181 children, aged 12 years, from rural and urban areas of southern Brazil, was assessed according to World Health Organization guidelines. Sensitivity to the bitterness of phenylthiocarbamide was determined using the Harris–Kalmus procedure, and the sweet taste thresholds of sucrose were measured by Nilsson and Holm's method.
The caries index (DMFT > 0) was 3.73 (SD = 2.26) in the rural area and 3.51 (SD = 2.14) in the urban area. The sensitivity to bitter taste and sweet taste perception showed significant association with the gender of schoolchildren (P = 0.04). Girls were predominant in the high sweet perception taster group (62.3%) and the bitter taster group (59.4%). No significant difference in sweet perception status could be observed between the groups of low and high caries severity. The genetic ability to taste bitterness significantly influenced the levels of caries only in children from the urban area (P = 0.005). Bitter non-tasters presented higher severity of caries. A positive correlation was observed between sensitivity to bitter taste and sweet taste perception among children in the rural (r = 0.42, P = 0.002) and urban areas (r = 0.36, P = 0.001).
These findings suggest that the bitter non-tasters are more susceptible to dental caries than the tasters in the urban area.
本研究的目的是评估对苦味的敏感性和甜味的感知是否对城乡地区的龋齿有影响。
根据世界卫生组织指南，对来自巴西南部城乡地区的181名12岁儿童的龋齿经历进行了评估。使用哈里斯 - 卡尔穆斯程序测定对苯硫脲苦味的敏感性，并通过尼尔森和霍尔姆的方法测量蔗糖的甜味阈值。
农村地区的龋齿指数（DMFT>0）为3.73（标准差=2.26），城市地区为3.51（标准差=2.14）。对苦味的敏感性和甜味感知与学童的性别有显著关联（P = 0.04）。在高甜味感知品尝者组（62.3%）和苦味品尝者组（59.4%）中女孩占主导。在低龋齿严重程度组和高龋齿严重程度组之间未观察到甜味感知状态的显著差异。仅在城市地区的儿童中，尝苦味的遗传能力对龋齿水平有显著影响（P = 0.005）。苦味非品尝者的龋齿严重程度更高。在农村（r = 0.42，P = 0.002）和城市地区（r = 0.36，P = 0.001）的儿童中，观察到对苦味的敏感性和甜味感知之间呈正相关。
这些发现表明，在城市地区，苦味非品尝者比品尝者更容易患龋齿。
