RESUMO
The aim of this investigation was to study the effect of barium and fluoride in drinking water on caries formation in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a cariogenic diet (MIT-200) 17 times daily in a König-Hofer programmed feeding machine for 37 days. Drinking water containing barium (0, 50 or 100 ppm) and fluoride (0 or 10 ppm) was available ad libitum. Rats to whose water was added 50 ppm barium had significant reductions in the mean severity of both buccolingual lesions and sulcal lesions compared with those rats whose water contained no barium. As expected, F at 10 ppm in the drinking water significantly reduced caries severity but this F effect was independent of the barium effect. This suggests that the inhibitory effects of barium and fluoride at these levels are additive and operate by separate mechanisms.
Assuntos
Bário/uso terapêutico , Cárie Dentária/etiologia , Fluoretos/uso terapêutico , Animais , Bário/administração & dosagem , Cárie Dentária/prevenção & controle , Dieta Cariogênica , Combinação de Medicamentos , Fluoretos/administração & dosagem , Masculino , Ratos , Ratos Endogâmicos , Streptococcus mutans/fisiologia , Abastecimento de ÁguaRESUMO
The aim of this investigation was to determine if barium in drinking water, in combination with fluoride, has an effect on caries prevalence in a human population. Children, aged 12-14 yr, were selected from two towns which had a similar socioeconomic and racial balance but one had a barium concentration of 8.0-10.0 ppm in its drinking water and the other a level which was less than 0.03 ppm. The caries prevalence, as mean DMFS, was significantly lower in the high barium town (2.76 +/- 0.82) than in the low barium town (5.14 +/- 0.65). The difference in mottling scores between the two towns was not significant (P = 0.44, chi-square test). This difference in mean DMFS between the high and low barium communities could not be explained by an effect of other covariate factors.
