Predictive dentistry: a study in carbohydrate metabolism.

The virtues of prediction in the so-called health sciences are well-known. There is still small but burgeoning interest in predictive medicine; little has been done in predictive dentistry. The evidence presented in this report suggests that carbohydrate metabolism may be utilized as a predictive instrument in dentistry.

Tissue tolerance to orthodontic banding. A study in carbohydrate metabolism.

Tissue tolerance to orthodontic banding was determined in a group of children in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry. Nonfasting blood glucose and three oral parameters--gingival state, clinical tooth mobility and labial debris--were determined before banding a mandibular lateral incisor and again one month later. Each subject received a multivitamin-trace mineral supplement or an indistinguishable placebo during that month.

Vitamin C and human wound healing.

Clinical studies provide evidence that wound healing in subjects judged not deficient in vitamin C can be significantly accelerated with supplements of this nutrient above the recommended daily allowance (RDA). The authors administered daily dosages of 500 to 3,000 mg., which is roughly 8 to 50 times the RDA of 60 mg.

Nutritional aspects of urolithiasis.

Although there is much concern about the relationship between vitamin C consumption and oxalate or uric acid lithiasis in the urinary tract, there is no controlled clinical study that demonstrates this occurrence. Equal concern should be accorded the other nutritional links to urinary lithiasis, since it is very unlikely that vitamin C or any one of the other factors is ever the sole cause of a kidney stone. The rare persons who, because of an altered metabolism, convert much of the ingested vitamin C into oxalic acid constitute the only high-risk category.