Diet and dental caries.

Dental caries is a diet-related disease that continues to be a problem for certain dental patients. Frequent consumption of fermentable carbohydrates that have low oral clearance rates increases the risk for enamel caries and perhaps is even more dangerous for root surfaces. Highly acidogenic snack foods should be consumed at mealtimes to reduce the risk, and between-meal snacks should be either nonacidogenic (such as xylitol products) or hypoacidogenic (such as sorbitol and HSH products). Cheeses present a naturally occurring situation that may provide anticariogenic effects from the diet. Certain additives as well as sugar substitutes show great promise for the provision of between-meal snack foods that reduce the risk of dental caries. The dental team should thoroughly understand the relationship of diet to caries and conscientiously apply that knowledge to educate the patients in general as well as counsel specific high-risk individuals. Further emphasis should be placed on the acquisition of sound scientific data for counseling caries patients concerning diet and dental caries.