Sugar, snacks, fluoride and dental caries in RSA preschool children: an overview.

Sucrose consumption in preschool or school children, or in adolescents is generally accepted as being promotive of dental caries. (Takeuchi, 1961; Yudkin, 1969; Bowen, 1978; Newbrun, 1979; Shaw, 1985). That this is no recent association has been illustrated by Shaw (1985) in his review of the relationship of diet to dental caries in which he quoted a question posed by Aristotle in 350 BC “Why do figs when they are soft and sweet produce damage to the teeth?” This cloying stickiness is accepted by many to be the form in which sugar eaten frequently, for instance in sweets, cakes and other snacks, is particularly harmful (Fisher, 1971; Poole and Darling, 1972; Grenby, 1976). The findings of the wellknown Vipeholm study (Gustafsson et al, 1954) strongly support this point of view. In contrast there are the findings in another classical study completed at much the same time. King (1946) reported that over a 2 year period the eating of sweets and chocolate biscuits by young children on retiring was found not to give rise to excessive caries.