Dietary Habits and Dental Plaque Composition of Fructose-Intolerant Patients

摘要

Ingestion of items containing fructose and/or sucrose by persons with hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) causes severe hypoglycemia, nausea, and vomiting. This study compared diet, oral hygiene, caries scores, plaque microflora, and plaque chemical content of HFI and control subjects. HFI subjects consumed sucrose-containing items less often than control subjects. HFI diets contained significantly less sucrose (4.4 g/day) than control diets (36.4 g/day). HFI subjects had significantly lower DMFT (mean 2.1) and DMFS (mean 3.3) scores than control subjects (DMFT, mean 14.3; DMFS, mean 36.1). The degree of oral hygiene was similar in both groups. However, potentially odontopathic Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus were isolated significantly less frequently from HFI than from control subjects. S. sanguis, an ubiquitous commensal, was isolated with equal frequency from both groups. No differences were found in the chemical composition of plaque from HFI and control subjects. The findings support the concept that diet influences the distribution of microorganisms in dental plaque and is therefore an important factor in caries prevention.