Is Tooth Decay Caused by Mutans Streptococci?
A long time ago, some people thought that tooth decay was caused by worms. I suppose they saw that worms ate apples, and then concluded that perhaps microscopic worms were what ate holes in our teeth. Today the modern theory of tooth decay is nearly identical, but rather than believing that worms cause cavities, we believe wrongly that cavities simply happen from the outside of the tooth inward, due to the acid waste products of bacteria called Streptococci Mutans. A researcher by the name of Clark isolated S. Mutans in 1924. He thought they were a mutant form of the known streptococcus bacteria, so he called it, Streptococcus Mutan. Interestingly the original research associated the Streptococcus Mutans with human physiological decay, and not with tooth decay. This original finding allows to see the key of the real role of the Streptococcus Mutans in relation to dental decay, which is that Streptococcus Mutans exist in a dominate sate when the body is in a process of deterioration. In
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