AWARENESS ON CORRELATION BETWEEN FOOD INTAKE AND ALTERATION OF SALIVARY pH AMONG DENTAL STUDENTS

AIM: To evaluate the level of awareness and to create awareness about the correlation between food intake and alteration of salivary pH among dental students. INTRODUCTION: Physical and chemical properties of foods stimulate the oral mucosa and tongue surface, to induce salivary secretion. Thus, salivary pH values generally increase immediately after the consumption of meals. When the pH level in the mouth goes below 5.5, the acids begin to break down the tooth enamel. The longer the teeth are exposed to a low salivary pH, there are obvious chances of development of dental caries. And also different types of food have different types of effect on salivary pH. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This is an online study setting with a sample size of 104 dental practitioners. The sampling method used is non-probability convenience sampling with minimal sampling bias. The questionnaire comprised 16 questions and the method of representing each output variable was pie chart and bar graph. The results were analyzed using SPSS statistical software and the type of analysis was Chi square test. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Fourth year students were better aware that consumption of potato chips and cream biscuits increases the salivary pH and consumption of mineral water is significantly associated with a moderate acidic pH, third year students were better aware that coffee lowers the salivary pH but maintains it well above the critical pH because of its low acidogenicity and a constantly low pH can increase the caries incidence. CONCLUSION: Within the limits of the study, third and fourth year students had greater awareness than other study year students. The results of this survey show that all the the questioned subjects were aware about the correlation between food intake and alteration of salivary pH, however there wasn't much awareness about the influence of type of food on alteration of pH.