Erosion of Dentine and Enamel in Vitro by Dietary Acids: the Effect of Temperature, Acid Character, Concentration and Exposure Time

Sales of soft drinks has been increasing by 56% over the last 10 years and are estimated to keep rising at about 2-3% a year. Further, the reported incidence of tooth erosion has been increasingly documented. Whilst these factors could well be linked, many individuals with erosive diets are not presenting with erosion. This would suggest the effects of many variables, hence the aim of these investigations. Methodologies included preparing enamel and dentine samples from unerupted human third molars. Groups of five specimens were placed in citric acid over a temperature range of 5-60 degrees C for 10-min exposures; placed in citric, lactic, malic or phosphoric acid (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, and 1% (w/v)) for 10-min exposures; and placed in the same three organic hydroxy acids at 0.3% (w/v) or phosphoric acid at 0.1% (w/v) for 3 x 10-min exposures. Tissue loss was determined by profilometry. Results showed that increasing temperature, concentration and exposure time increased the erosion of dentine and enamel. This study has shown that under highly controlled conditions, erosion of dentine and enamel by dietary acids can be greatly influenced in vitro by temperature, concentration, type of acid and exposure time. These factors could be employed in order to reduce the erosivity of soft acidic drinks.