The effects of sucralose on coronal and root-surface caries

Sucralose is an intensely sweet, chlorinated carbohydrate structurally similar to sucrose; thus, its cariogenic potential is of great interest. Four groups of 12 Sprague-Dawley rats were infected with Streptococcus mutans (sobrinus), caged in a König-Höfer programmed feeding machine, and fed diet 2000 or modified diet to contain sucralose at various concentrations instead of sucrose. Rats fed sucralose diet developed significantly fewer lesions than did the rats fed regular diet 2000. Animals fed diet 2000 also harbored more S. mutans (sobrinus) than did the other groups of animals. In a concurrent study, desalivated rats were inoculated with S. mutans (sobrinus) and Actinomyces viscosus. They were fed (ad libitum) either diet 2000 (contains 56% sucrose) or diet 2000 minus sucrose plus 93 mg% sucralose. The severity of caries lesions in the sucralose-fed rats after 35 days was significantly less than those in the sucrose-fed rats. The amount of root exposure was the same in both groups. However, root-surface caries did not develop in the sucralose-fed rats. These results show that sucralose is non-cariogenic in rats.