The effect of cheving on the ph of dental plaques after carbohydrate consumption

Abstract

Eighteen volunteers were given a mouth rinse with a 50 per cent sucrose solution and the pH of superficial dental plaque was measured electrometrically after 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 minutes either when the person was continuously chewing paraffin or without paraffin chewing. The paraffin was chewed on one side of the mouth and the samples for measurement of the pH were taken from the other side of the mouth. In one series of experiments paraffin was chewed but the mouth was not rinsed with the sugar solution. The results revealed that the pH-decrease caused by the sugar rinse was diminished significantly by chewing. Chewing paraffin raised the pH by about 0.4, compared with the initial pH-values recorded after 10 minutes. This pH-increase lasted throughout the experimental period of 30 minutes. The difference was statistically significant.

Key Words:

• Dental plaque
• hydrogen-ion concentration
• chewing
• sucrose