Assessment of Acidogenicity of Commercially Available Biscuits on Salivary pH - An in vivo Study

Saliva is a complex secretion consisting of 99% of water and remaining 1% of organic and inorganic molecules. Sucrose and starches are the predominant dietary carbohydrates in modern societies. Among all the foods consumed by children, chocolates and biscuits are the most common. Therefore this present in vivo study was conducted to assess the acidogenic effect of commercially available biscuits on salivary pH among 10 to 15 years old children. Study Design used in the study was In Vivo clinical study (Pilot Trail). The population collected in the survey was children between the age group of 10 - 15 years old children. 4 Groups were considered and 10 in each group. Group 1: Hide and Seek, Group 2: Good Day, Group 3: Dream and Cream, Group 4: Oreo. Sampling method used in the study was conducted as simple random sampling. Ethical approval of the study was obtained from Saveetha Institutional Review Board. Informed consent of the children were obtained from the parents. Descriptive statistics were expressed by means of mean and standard deviation. Shapiro Wilks test used to test the normality of the data set. Kruskal Wallis test was used to find the difference in mean Salivary pH between the groups and within the groups at Baseline, Immediate and after 15 min, 30 mins. A statistically significant difference in mean Salivary pH was observed between the groups at Immediate and after 30 mins (p<0.05). The mean Salivary pH was significantly dropped in Oreo, Dream cream and Hide & Seek groups at various time-periods. Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that maximum drop in mean salivary pH was observed in Group IV followed by Group II and Group I. It was observed that in all the groups, the pH gradually got back to near normal levels due to the buffering mechanism of saliva.