van Houte J, Russo J
J Dent Res. 1985 May;64(5):815-7. doi: 10.1177/00220345850640050601.
The acid production rate of dental plaque, formed by different streptococci in gnotobiotic rats fed a high sucrose diet or starved for seven or eight days, was determined in vitro. Starvation had no appreciable effect on acid production. This supports the idea that the small pH-lowering ability of plaque of caries-free or stomach tube-fed people in whom exposure of the teeth to fermentable carbohydrate is relatively low or negligible results from a change in the bacterial population rather than a change in the rate of acid production by an unaltered flora.
