Erosion by soft drinks of rat molar teeth assessed by digital image analysis.

A digital imaging analysis (DIA) procedure for recording and assessing erosive changes on teeth was developed and evaluated against an older subjective method. Results after exposure of rats' teeth to various soft drinks showed that the DIA system was superior to the conventional method, with improved precision. The system provided a direct and highly sensitive means of quantifying the erosion of dental hard tissues by three different soft drinks, showing that it could be used to evaluate erosiveness and other dental damage. After 6 weeks' exposure to soft drinks in the diet, the area of intact enamel on the lingual surface of the first mandibular molar averaged 47% on apple juice, 27% on still orange and 6% on carbonated orange. The greatest exposure of dentine (36%) was on the still orange drink. Eroded enamel accounted for 72.5% of the tooth surface on the carbonated drink.