Frequency of food intakes and dental caries in a Malaysian dental student group

Although the relationship between snack food eating and dental caries has been investigated in the United States and European groups, no data exist for Asian snack foods and diets. Our objective was to investigate snack food eating and dental caries in a Malaysian dental student group. Frequency of eating was assessed on a basis of 2 weekday and 2 weekend day diaries for non-fasting students and one weekday and one weekend day during Ramadan, and a similar set outside Ramadan for fasting students. The sucrose and carbohydrate composition of between meal snacks and drinks was identified. The total number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth was recorded by two dental examiners. The modal number of total food intakes was 2 or 3 per day on both weekdays and weekends. The number of between-meal snacks and drinks varied between 0 and 5. They were either high sucrose/low carbohydrate or high sucrose/high carbohydrate. DMFS scores were very low in all subjects but increased with between- meal snack intakes, particularly in the high sucrose/low carbohydrate category. Malaysian students had relatively low frequencies of food intakes but there was still an association between frequency of between-meal snacks and caries rates, as in Western countries

effect of psidium guajava and piper betle extracts on the morphology of dental plaque bacteria

It has been reported that the aqueous extracts of Psidium guajava and Piper betle leaves showed anti-plaque activities during the early stages of dental plaque formation. The aim of the study was to elucidate if such anti-plaque activities involve any ultra-structural changes to the morphology of three early dental plaque bacteria, Streptococcus sanguinis, Streptococcus mitis and Actinomyces sp. Pure cultures of the bacteria were suspended in BHI medium and treated with the test herbal extracts at the sub-lethal concentrations. The growth mixtures were incubated at 37°C. At the logarithmic growth phase [t1], aliquots of 1 ml of the growth mixtures were fixed and used in the preparation of specimens for SEM studies. Ultra-structural alterations to the morphology of the treated cells noted were compared to those of the cells cultured under untreated conditions. Following exposure of the bacteria to the two test herbal extracts, profound ultra-structural changes to their morphology were observed. The observed structural or morphological alterations could attribute to the bacteria being less active in performing normal physiological metabolic functions and thus rendering them less efficient to multiply. The changes noted included [i] reduced sizes of the bacteria, and [ii] majority cells at the non-dividing state as compared to those cultured under controlled conditions. This study has shown anti-plaque effects of aqueous extract of both P. betle and P. guajava

The Effect of Beverages On The Release of Calcium From The Eanmel Surface

In this study, the effect of beverages (Coke TM, Sprite™, Ribena™, Chrysanthemum tea and mineral water) on the demineralisation of the enamel surface was investigated. Demineralisation was determined by the rate of calcium released from the enamel surface on exposure to the beverages. Calcium was determined using the EDTA titration method. The pH of these beverages was measured using a pH meter and found to be in the acidic range (2.43 to 5.79) while mineral water which served as a control has a pH of 7.00. Ii was found that the rate of calcium released from Coke™(0.76 J..lg/min) showed a significant mean difference from Sprite™ (0.38 J..lg/min), Chrysanthemum tea (0.10 J..lg/min) and mineral water (0.00 J..lg/min)at p< .05, but was however not significantly different from Ribena™. Likewise, Chrysanthemum tea and mineral water also showed statistically no significant mean difference in the released of calcium during the study period. The results obtained in this study indicated that beverages with low pH may pose detrimental effect on the enamel surface which could have clinical implication, especially in people with salivary gland dysfunction or low salivary flow.