[Preventive dentistry 8. Diet and caries].

The call to consume less sugar in order to improve the general health is becoming increasingly loud. The question is in what way consuming less sugar could also contribute to a lower risk of caries. This can be achieved by limiting the frequency of consuming sugary snacks. For oral health reasons, people in the Netherlands are advised not to consume things containing sugar more than four times between meals. Another way to make the diet less cariogenic is to substitute sugar in foods by non-caloric intense sweeteners, caloric sugar alcohols or 'new carbohydrates'. Non-caloric intense sweeteners and caloric sweeteners have been proven to be non-cariogenic. New carbohydrates still have to be individually tested.