Theobromine vs. Fluoride: a neural network analysis

Dental caries are, to this day, the most preventable disease still plaguing humankind. Since the mid 1900's, there has been little to no innovation in commercial fluoride dentifrices, in that, the active agent as a caries preventative is 0.24% sodium fluoride (0.15% fluoride ion), or 0.76% sodium monofluorophosphate. The purpose of the current work is to examine the effects of theobromine versus fluoride on the enamel surface of human teeth by use of an artificial neural network. Theobromine (3,7 dimethylxanthine) is a white crystalline powder and differs by only one methyl group to its sister molecule, caffeine (1,3,7 dimethlyxanthine). The dissertation focuses on a brief introduction to theobromine and the previous literature, the experimental materials, method, and design, and finally to the analysis of enamel surface microhardness data by the artificial neural network model. A subsequent in vivo acid dissolution also leads us to believe that theobromine might be a particularly effective agent in helping the enamel surface of human teeth resist the effects of bacterial acid demineralization The implications of the current work are that theobromine, which occurs naturally in chocolates, teas, and cocoa products worldwide, is a natural, nontoxic, more efficacious, and viable alternative to fluoride additives in commercial dentifrices