[Dental caries: from verminous to infectious disease]

The purpose of our analysis is to study the evolution of knowledge about the etiology of caries. Since ancient times mankind has investigated the causes of a pathology which is at times most painful. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the advent of microbiology, was the relationship between oral bacteria, food residues and tooth decay understood. This important discovery was due to Willoughby Dayton Miller, one of Koch's students. His "chemical-parasitical" theory was universally accepted in a few years. Even now, if we want to explain the causes of caries, we have to start from Miller's study