November 11, 2011
School of Dentistry, Kochi
 

There has been much evidence to show that consumption of aerated beverages like Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Sprite, etc. is not good for our health.
 

Neither are these beverages good for our teeth or for aesthetic restorative materials one may have used to enhance the beauty of the teeth.
 

“On the basis of my research, my recommendation to the public is to reduce the consumption of aerated beverages for maintaining the health of the teeth, particularly when dental restorative materials are placed as fillings in the oral cavity,” stated Dr. Arun M. Xavier, Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the Amrita School of Dentistry.
 

Dr. Arun recently won the best paper award for his paper titled Aesthetic restorative materials and aerated beverage consumption – How safe? at the 33rd National Conference of the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry recently organized in Mangalore.
 

A wide variety of aesthetic restorative materials including Fuji II, Fuji IX, KetacTM N100, Z100TM Composite P shade and Ceram XTM Nano ceramic restoratives are used by dentists.
 

Dr. Arun studied the change in surface microhardness of these aesthetic restorative materials after subjecting them to chemical interaction from two aerated beverages, Coca Cola and Sprite, in an in-vitro situation.
 

“We tested the clinical durability of the restorations,” stated Dr. Arun.
 

The materials were studied under three experimental conditions – they were either exposed to the aerated beverages daily or once in a week or given no exposure at all. The final surface microhardness of the materials following the experimentation was subjected to statistical analysis.
 

The findings revealed a surface microhardness loss with all samples of restorative materials where there was exposure to the aerated beverages. The maximum reduction was noticed with KetacTM N100. The loss in hardness was incidentally found to be greater with exposure to Coca Cola than Sprite.
 

The restorative specimens that were stored in artificial saliva showed a marginal increase in the surface hardness. These had no exposure to aerated beverages.
 

Dr. Arun has had several national and international publications; he has also presented several papers in both national and international conferences. In October 2010, he was an invited guest speaker at the Global International Pediatric Summit in China.
 

“Amrita has been instrumental in molding my research orientation and has provided me with access to scientific research papers and the right equipment and infrastructure,” noted the scholar.
 

“I want to acknowledge the support of my colleagues and mentors as I look forward to conducting more research in the field,” he added.