Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (Mar 2018)
Ex vivo Evaluation of the Erosive Effect of Acid Tea Widely Consumed in Brazil
Abstract
Introduction: Dental erosion is defined as the pathological, irreversible, chronic, and localised loss of dental enamel by prolonged acid action and often without bacterial involvement. Aim: To evaluate ex vivo, the erosive potential of widely consumed teas in Brazil by measuring the pH, titratable acidity of beverages and the roughness and surface microhardness of dental enamel before and after erosive challenges. Materials and Methods: Thirty human maxillary third molars, extracted for clinical reasons and obtained from Human Teeth Bank of the Dental School from 8th May 2017 to 18th May 2017 (Federal University of Juiz de Fora), were used to perform erosive cycles, which were exposed to Morinda citrifolia, Uncaria tomentosa, Caesalpinia ferrea, Schizolobium amazonicum, Schinus aroeira teas and 1% citric acid. The samples were immersed in the solutions for two minute, five times a day, at intervals of two hours for four days. Between the erosive cycles, the specimens remained in artificial saliva. Statistical analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS statistics version 22.0 software. The accepted significance was set has p-value <0.05. Results: The mean pH of the five samples ranged from 3.56 to 5.56 and all the herbal teas tested showed significant buffering capacity. The results suggested that all acid teas in the study have an erosive potential. The microhardness ranged from 34.12 to 46.98, and no significant difference was observed between groups in relation to the control group (1% citric acid). The roughness results for M. citrifolia and U. tomentosa teas were similar to those of the control group. Conclusion: The analysis of the data allows for the conclusion that all the teas present with acid pH and presence of ions capable of interacting with the dental surface and causing loss of dental tissue, reducing the microhardness of the enamel. Thus, there is a need to be careful in consuming such beverages.
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