Enamel rehardening by bread consumption.

PURPOSE

To investigate the in situ rehardening effect by white or whole-meal bread on softened enamel.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Twelve volunteers wearing orthodontic removable appliances participated in this study. The intraoral test was chosen for measuring microhardness of enamel slabs inserted into the dental appliance. Average microhardness of enamel was calculated at three stages: At start (baseline), after exposing the enamel slabs to a citrus beverage (pH 3.4) for 30 minutes in vitro as a softening agent, followed by intraoral exposure for a duration of 5 minutes to stimulated secreted saliva by parafilm chewing (control), or to 15g white- and wholemeal-bread mastication respectively (experimental).

RESULTS

A significant rehardening of the softened enamel surfaces took place following mastication of the two bread samples and salivary secretion. The differences in the rehardening potentials of the bread samples as compared to that of saliva were not significant. From the conditions chosen for the experiment, there was no sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that bread eating with calcium and phosphate concentrations at the existent levels will afford a significant greater rehardening than saliva alone.