48: Diet, Nutrition, and Oral Health

Nutrition plays an important role in the development, progression, management, and treatment of oral and dental diseases. Inadequate or inappropriate dietary intake of certain nutritional components can have a direct effect on the hard and soft tissues of the oral cavity, such as in the development and structure of the teeth or the health of the oral mucosa (eg, vitamin B₁₂ deficiency causing angular cheilitis and aphthous ulcers). Poor nutrition can also facilitate the development of disease directly, as in dental erosion, or indirectly, as in dental caries. By understanding the role that nutrition plays in oral health and...