Evaluation of effect of various drinks on tooth surface morphology under scanning electron microscope

The study aimed to evaluate and compare the effect of various beverages carbonated drinks, i.e., thumps up, fresh fruit juice (apple and pomegranate) and packaged fruit juice (apple and pomegranate) on tooth surface morphology under scanning electron microscope.

Thirty recently extracted intact caries-free human permanent teeth were disinfected with 5.25% of sodium hypochlorite solution and autoclaved at 240°F, 20 psi pressure for 40 min. Each tooth was sectioned into 4 enamel sections yielding 120 sections which were embedded in resin using a prefabricated mold. Prepared samples were immersed as Group I - thumps up, Group II - fresh apple juice, Group III - packaged apple juice, Group IV - fresh pomegranate juice, Group V - packaged pomegranate juice, and Group VI - normal saline. Each immersion was done daily for 30 min over 14 days after which samples were scanned under scanning electron microscope (SEM). The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 23; Chicago Inc., IL, USA).

The highest surface roughness was noted in the fresh pomegranate and packaged pomegranate groups with a mean of 2.9000 ± 0.30779 followed by thumbs up group. The greatest mean of cracks was noted in thumbs up group with a mean of 2.500 ± 0.51299 which was significant at P = 0.000. The greatest mean of score was noted in thumbs up group with a mean of 2.3000 ± 0.65695 which was significant at P = 0.000.

The present study demonstrated that all drinks were erosive in nature with thumps and pomegranate juice showing significantly higher erosiveness than apple juice (P < 0.01).