Princeton Dental Resource Center

The Princeton Dental Resource Center, founded in 1987, published a newsletter claiming that eating chocolate could be good for the teeth. The Center, which had no affiliation with Princeton University, was funded almost entirely by the M&M/Mars candy company.

The New York Times, whose reporting exposed the $1 million in annual funding that the Center received from M&M/Mars, noted that "Most dental researchers say there are gaping holes in the chocolate theory. Moreover, many dentists who distributed the newsletter did not know that the Princeton group was financed by a candy company, M&M/Mars. The publications make no mention of the connection. And researchers and consumer experts are angry. ... among others who vigorously disagree with the newsletter's report on chocolate's potential anticavity power is the scientist on whose report it was largely based. Dr. Lawrence Wolinsky of the University of California at Los Angeles said his work had been mischaracterized."

Dr. Irwin Mandel, an associate dean of research at Columbia University's School of Dentistry, described the Center's newsletter as "spin dentistry."

A search of the telephone directory shows no listings for the Princeton Dental Resource Center on November 7, 2005. It appears, therefore, that the Center has disbanded.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * front groups
 * Industry-funded organizations
 * Mars
 * Third party technique

External articles

 * Barry Meier, "Dubious Theory: Chocolate a Cavity Fighter," New York Times, April 15, 1992, p. A1.