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Vitamin D may benefit dentistry in a major way.
Many recent studies have concluded that vitamin D may be capable of preventing dental caries or tooth decay. Based on 24 clinical trials from the 1920s through the 1980s, 3,000 children were studied in regards to vitamin D and its impact on the teeth. The results from these various studies showed that there was a 50 percent tooth decay reduction from the people who participated in the study.
The information appeared in the December issue of Nutrition Reviews.
The benefits of vitamin D in the area of bone health have never been disputed. Vitamin D’s impact on caries, however, has led to much debate.
The U.S. National Research Council concluded around 1950 that vitamin D aided protection against caries. But around the same time, the American Dental Association disputed this claim. The debate continued into the late 1980s.
Current studies by the Institute of Medicine, the U.S. Department of Human Health and Service and the ADA don’t infer anything about vitamin D and its impact on dental caries.
An ongoing factor lends more credence into the idea that vitamin D lowers the rate of tooth decay: vitamin D levels in many populations are going down while the number of dental caries seen in young children continues to rise. It’s conceivable that this data is purely coincidental.
Despite the years of research on the topic, more is necessary to definitively determine how vitamin D affects a person’s risk of developing tooth decay.
