Sugars and dental decay

Abstract

Sugar is the principal cause of the most common disease in industrialised countries, dental caries. The sugars implicated in dental caries, in decreasing order of cariogenicity, are sucrose, glucose, and fructose; brown sugars are as cariogenic as white. The level of sugar consumption at which most of the population will not get dental caries is 15 kg/person/year. The goal should therefore be to reduce consumption to this level and below. The following policies should be introduced to achieve this goal: sugars should not be added to dietary items such as baby foods; a range of acceptable sugar-free snacks and drinks should be developed; non-cariogenic sweeteners should be substituted for added sucrose and glucose in foods, confections, and drinks; sugar-containing foods should be modified to make them less cariogenic; and the levels of added sugars in commonly used foods should be reduced. The transmission to the public of information on sugars and dental health should be improved.