Dental caries in South African rural black women who had large families and long lactations.

A general recommendation for good bone and teeth formation is that a high intake of calcium is essential. Some consider that pregnancy and lactation, with associated calcium depletion, could aggravate caries development. South African black mothers in rural areas have habitually low calcium intakes, and usually several pregnancies and long periods of lactation. To learn whether high parity is detrimental to caries scores, investigations were made on a selected total of 521 black mothers, 250 aged 35-44 years, and 271 aged 45-54 years. Each group was sub-divided into those with small families (1-3 children) or large families (5 + children). The numbers involved were 122 and 133 mothers, and 128 and 138 mothers, respectively. Studies revealed: black mothers had very much lower mean caries scores than values reported for white mothers, who are accustomed, inter alia, to high calcium intakes, have few children, and often no or short lactation periods; black mothers of large compared with small families did not have significantly higher mean caries scores; and upper and lower thirds of black mothers respecting calcium intake, and sugar intake, did not have significantly different mean caries scores. Hence, in the context studied, it would seem that high parity has no obvious effect on caries scores.