An evaluation of pH changes of human dental plaque after oral rinsing of commonly prescribed syrup medications.

The study was carried out on 60 school going children (dft/DMFT 2-5) aged 8-13 years randomly distributed into six age groups of ten subjects each. One group acted as a control in which subjects rinsed with 10% sucrose while in the other five groups, the subjects rinsed with 5 commonly prescribed syrup medications for 10 seconds. Plaque samples were collected before rinsing and at 5,10,20,30 min. intervals post rinsing and plaque pH was measured extraorally. All the 5 groups showed drop in the plaque pH, similar to control group 10% sucrose solution, but not to the extent of critical pH (5.5).