Caries

Caries is a contagious disease and its prevention.
Many years ago in the “Cariology” class our tutor started like this: Ladies and gentlemen, last dental journal has stated “Caries is an infectionand it is contagious” The whole classroom was silent, nobody said a word, or made a movement. That revelation was changing a large quantity of arguments and theories related to the matter. Beingstudied exhaustively day-to-day the subject for around two years, we were astonished, and the paradigm was broken. The lecturer was conscious of the impact he had created in his audience. Everybody wasexpecting his following words.
He continued: there is a transmissible epidemic happening in almost every home that we do not know about. Caries, also known as tooth decay or cavity, which is anirreversible bacterial infection, causes demineralization of the hard tissues, and damage to the organic matters of the tooth, commonly by formation of acid by hydrolysis of the food debris stored on thetooth surface.
This contagious disease is the most common chronic one spread all around the world, which is initiated by streptococcus mutants and lactobacillus. They are passed usually from mother tochild or between couples by kissing, sharing utensils or any other activity which spreads any minuscule drop of saliva from one mouth to another one.
Babies and small children are the mostvulnerable group. Studies have shown they are infected by the ones who take care of them – for example when the mother tastes the food of his/her baby in order to make sure that it is not too hot, or if thepacifier falls down on the ground, instead of rinsing it with water, mothers put it into their mouths and then into their baby’s ones. It would only infect him/her with caries.
It had been thought thatcandies and sugar were responsible for Caries. The decay produced by them is caused by the microorganisms that stick on the teeth and are fed by the rests of food leftovers. However, those agents...