Dental hard tissue erosion rates and soft drinks – A gender based analysis in Chennai city, India

BackgroundA shift in the type and quantity of beverages consumed has been noticed, especially the decrease in the intake of milk and increased consumption of soft drinks. Soft drinks have a pH level of 2 which causes the need to assess its effect on the oral cavity, especially that of dental erosion. The study was done to evaluate if dental erosion was more prevalent in any one particular gender. Also a comparison was done between carbonated and non carbonated type of soft drinks, the various amounts and frequencies of consumption, the favourite brand of soft drink and their consequent dental erosion rates were evaluated.Materials and methodsA cross sectional descriptive study was done among 400, middle income adults, belonging to the age group of 18–25 years. They were examined between January and March in the year 2012, by a single examiner. A questionnaire was circulated previously in two zones of Chennai, India and the subjects were chosen by lottery method. Clinical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Department of Public Health Dentistry, SRM Dental College, India to conduct the dental assessment. The dental erosion rates were estimated using Smith and Knight Index.ResultsParticipants who consumed beverages weekly (17.65% males) had less erosion than those who consumed it daily (61.23% males). Higher the quantity of consumption more was the Erosion Index. Higher index values were seen in those who consumed only carbonated soft drinks (35.16 of female) than those who consumed only non-carbonated soft drinks (15.93% of female). On comparison of variables between genders, the p values (0.221 for type of soft drink, 0.826 for quantity of soft drink consumed) obtained were greater than the level of significance (>0.05).ConclusionsErosion causes deleterious effects to the dental hard tissues. No sex predilection was seen.