Some aspects of dental health in young adult Indian vegetarians. A pilot study.

The effect of a vegetarian diet on oral health status could be manifold, but reports have so far mainly appeared from within Western populations. This study reports the oral health status of southeast Indian vegetarians, obtained by means of a questionnaire, clinical examination, and study cast evaluations. The material comprised 30 vegetarians and 25 sex- and age-matched non-vegetarian controls. Comparison between the samples included dietary and oral hygiene habits, health-related variables, caries prevalence, and dentoalveolar characteristics. The questionnaire showed significantly less consumption of between-meal sweets and more widespread use of a soft toothbrush by the vegetarians. The vegetarians had a significantly higher degree of tooth wear than the non-vegetarians, but no difference in the degree of wear between women and men in either group was found. The vegetarians had a significantly higher tendency towards crowding in the maxillary arch, numerically higher DMFT, and greater number of cervical buccal defects than the controls. The results of this study suggest that the Indian vegetarian diet may produce certain effects on the oral health, associations that need to be studied further.