A Quantitative Examination of the Mouth Flora Under Different Dietary Conditions

Transmission electron microscope study of bacterial morphotypes on the anterior dorsal surface of human tongues

“…Cells with electron‐lucent granules were found in all dietary groups. These preliminary and limited observations related to diet are of particular interest in consideration of the conclusions of Howitt and Fleming (1930), especially their conclusion that “the oral bacteria are more influenced by the local food remains than by any general systemic effect produced by dietary changes.” Their dietary differences were high protein or high carbohydrate and their samples were scraped from teeth, not from the tongues of their donors. The middle one third of a tongue provided a greater variety of morphotypes than did the front one third.…”

“…Kligler and Gies (1915) studied biochemical and taxonomic aspects of oral bacteria with special reference to dental caries. Howitt and Fleming (1930) investigated mouth flora under different dietary conditions. Bibby (1938) reported on bacteria in the gingival pocket.…”

Studies, in the Rat, of Susceptibility To Dental Caries I. Bacteriological and Nutritional Factors1

“…Among the many possible factors involved in this problem, four, which have been given prominence by recent investigations, are dealt with in this study: the possibilities that (a) the presence or absence of lactobacilli may determine the incidence or absence of caries (14,15,22,1,2,3); (b) the character or amount of carbohydrate in the diet may affect the incidence of caries directly (24), or determine the presence or absence of lactobacilli in the mouth (13); (c) the inception of the carious process may be encouraged by or require either a rachitic nutritional deficiency (6,7,16,17,18), or (d) a scorbutic nutritional deficiency (26,11,12,8).…”

The Microbic Flora of the Dental Plaque in Relation to the Beginning of Caries

“…Most of the reports have been restricted to some part of the flora, usually to a single genus or species. Among those studies having a less specialized viewpoint and making notable contributions to knowledge in this field should be included the work of Kligler on the relationship of bacteria to dental caries (2), of Bloomfield (3) and of Brailovsky-Lounkevitch (4) on the evolution of the oral flora in infants, of Howitt and Fleming on changes in the flora associated with different diets (5) and of Bibby (6) and of Brooke (7) on smears from different areas in the mouth.…”