Talk:Tooth decay

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It is effective in reducing mutans streptococci.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4232036/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.186.130.106 (talk) 12:24, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

In its current form, this section is mostly unsupported by references – and also is confusing: on the one hand it talks about caries being a singular noun (which it is!) taking singular verb inflections (e.g., caries is caused, not caries are caused), but on the other hand it talks about it being a plurale tantum word (which I don't believe it is). Are there any good references (ideally open and not hidden behind a paywall) that would resolve this and could be easily referenced in the section? cherkash (talk) 11:33, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

It is borrowed from Latin along with the Latin grammatical rules for the fifth declension of nouns. Therefore, as with other borrowed Latin nouns of the same declension (e.g. series, species), the singular and plural forms are identical (e.g. "a series of events" & "many series of events") and it is not a plurale tantum. However, I agree that "dental caries" ought to be treated as singular because it is conceived of as 'a process' both in scientific literature and in professional jargon. Some people use it casually in a plural form (e.g. "there are caries on multiple teeth") but in this context "caries" seems to be incorrectly shortened from "carious lesions"--it would be more correct to say either "there is caries on multiple teeth" or "there are carious lesions on multiple teeth." Unfortunately I'm not aware of an authoritative reference on this either. Kevin13523 (talk) 22:10, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

I think asthma should be added to the risk factors, as having asthma decreases saliva production and therefore contributes to tooth decay. Anonymous Gnostic (talk) 21:52, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

such an essential topic shout get more attention. there are many contradictions in the article. also the order is quite horrendous. please please if you know anything about this subject try to contribute to make something half normalBentzion T. (talk) 07:00, 24 March 2022 (UTC)