Is raw sugarcane cariogenic?

Introduction: Dietary sucrose is claimed to be highly cariogenic. Most dietary sucrose is derived from sugarcane as refined white sugar. There is evidence that the removal of phosphate from sugar during the refining process contributes to its cariogenicity (Beck & Bibby, 1962) and that chewing raw sugarcane is non-cariogenic (Osbourne, 1937). Calcium sucrose phosphate, when added to the diet of children was shown to reduce caries experience (Harris et al.1969) but to date, studies on this issue remain equivocal (Theilade & Birkhed, 1986). Objectives: The objective of this study was to test the null-hypothesis that chewing sugarcane is not associated with reduced caries experience. Materials and methods: A total of 404 Children aged 12 years were selected from government schools in both sugarcane and non-sugarcane regions of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The drinking water in both regions was 0.3 ppm. Data on eating habits of the children was obtained by questionnaire and caries experience was determined during a clinical examination. Informed consent for the survey was obtained from the parents of the children. Results: The mean DMFT for the sugarcane and non-sugarcane groups were 0.50 and 0.70 respectively (p<0.002). Neither the potential confounding variables of lollie consumption, dietary added sugar, and diet pattern were significantly associated with caries experience. Conclusion: The null-hypothesis is rejected; the results of this study support the hypothesis that the chewing of sugarcane is associated with reduced dental caries.