Effect of consumption of mango fruit, fresh mango juice and commercially available mango juice on dental plaque ph at different time intervals

Introduction: Fruits and fruit juices are considered to be an important component of diet and good source of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. Fruit juices are popular among people of all ages as they are perceived to be important for health. The consumption of low pH fruit juices causes a drop in the oral pH and if it persists even for minutes, it causes a potential damage to teeth.

Aim: Evaluate the effect of consumption of mango fruit, fresh mango juice and commercially available mango juice of mango on pH of dental plaque at different time intervals.

Materials and method: 20 children in the age group of 8-14 years were selected for the study with two groups i.e. Caries free and Caries active. After oral prophylaxis plaque was collected at baseline. Then the subjects were asked to consume mango fruit. Post consumption plaque samples were collected after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes and plaque pH were estimated. The pH reading was determined using digital pH meter. After the washout period same procedure was repeated on same group of subjects using fresh mango juice and commercially available mango juice.

Result: The maximum drop in plaque pH was found after the consumption of commercially available mango juice in comparison to fresh mango juice and mango fruit. However the fall in plaque pH below the critical pH was observed in caries active group.

Conclusion: Hence it was concluded that consumption of mango fruit is a better option as commercially available mango juice had more acidogenic potential as compared to fresh mango juice and mango fruit.