Effect of Different Fruit Juices on the Level of Salivary pH at Different Time Periods in the Caries Free Dental Students

摘要

Background: Nature of saliva plays a critical role as a causative factor for caries of teeth as well as teeth erosion. Nowadays, there is a clear increase in the consumption of readily available carbonated drinks and fruit juices. Decreasing in the pH of saliva following drinking of any acidic juices has a detrimental effect on the oral health, therefore, this study was designed to test the effect of three types of fruit juices on the level of pH of saliva at different time periods. Materials and Methods: A baseline score was measured by collecting salivary samples of the subjects in sterile test tubes after chewing of paraffin wax (one gram) before drinking of fruit juices. Subjects drank the selected fruit juices used in this study(commercially available peach juice, fresh banana juice and fresh apple juice), after that saliva of each subject was collected in an identified test tubes after 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes of fruit juices intake. Results: This study showed that all three juices caused significant fall in the salivary pH. The commercially available peach juice showed the highest drop in the pH of saliva comparing to the other fresh juices at different time interval, showed lowest pH value at 1 minute after drinking. Conclusions: Fruit juices have a low pH and can adversely affect the pH of saliva, so the excessive intake of these juices must be avoided.