Sucrose and dental caries.

Sucrose is unequivocally implicated in the cause of dental caries. Biochemical, microbiological, animal and human clinical and epidemiological evidence support a causal relationship. The risk of caries is related both to the amount and the frequency of intake of sucrose. The evidence that sucrose is important is that a) extracellular synthesis of polysaccharides by plaque bacteria is dependent on high concentration of sucrose. Without synthesis of polymers S. mutans cannot colonize the mouth in large numbers. b) studies on animals show a relationship between sucrose content of a food and its cariogenicity, c) there is a direct relationship between the quantity of sucrose consumed and caries in humans, d) the relationship between dietary sucrose and caries in humans approximates an S-shaped curve that rises more steeply when the sucrose-containing products are consumed frequently and when newly erupted teeth are present in young children and adolescents. Following the sharp rise, the curve flattens out. Sucrose is much more cariogenic than starch in humans. Reduction in sucrose consumption levels by half will benefit dental health and is unlikely to have any detrimental effects on health.