Computer simulation of oral fluoride clearance

The presence of fluoride in saliva and dental plaque is important for prevention of dental caries. The elimination of fluoride from the oral cavity after introduction of a fluoride containing agent is a complicated physiological process. This process was simulated with a Pascal program running under MS-DOS on IBM-compatible microcomputers. The program calculated the fluoride concentration in saliva as a function of time from several input parameters, the most important being the amount of fluoride, salivary stimulation due to the fluoride vehicle, resting salivary flow rate and volume factors. Furthermore, factors such as excretion of fluoride in the saliva following fluoride absorption in the intestinal tract were modeled. The fluoride concentration in dental plaque due to diffusion was also calculated. Output was directed to files which could be processed by a graphics interface. The results of the computations were very similar to findings in vivo.