Spectrophotometric analysis of tooth discolouration induced by coffee and tea grown in south india: an in vitro study

ABSTRACT

Billions around the world start their day with a hot beverage, coffee and tea are considered to be the world's most popular hot beverages. Staining of teeth is a common finding in both tea and coffee drinkers. This study was conducted to evaluate the discolouration caused by two different types of coffee and tea commercially grown in South India Methods: A sample of 40 extracted, caries and stain free teeth were immersed for two minutes,four times a day for ten days in two different types of coffee (Robusta and Arabica) and tea (Organic and Green tea). Baseline and final values were obtained for color change, lightness, chroma and hue according to the CIELAB system using a spectrophotometer. Intragroup comparisons were carried out using Wilcoxon signed rank test and intergroup comparisons were carried out using Kruskal Wallis test (p value 0.05) Results: Colour changes of stained teeth were not statistically significant when compared amongthe different groups,but the intragroup changes in lightesschroma and hue were statistically significant when compared between the baseline and final values. Conclusion: The study suggests that both coffee and tea may cause external staining on the tooth surface (AU)