Cariogenicity of Breakfast Cereals

Background: Diet has a local effect on the oral health, primarily on the integrity of the teeth, pH, and composition of the saliva and plaque. Dental research studies on food type, texture, composition, retentiveness, consistency, etc. and their effect on dental hard tissues have been growing since ancient times. Simple sugars are considered cariogenic as against complex sugars/starch. Streptococcus Mutants initiate the caries process by acid production and thus lowering the plaque pH. Most of the commercialized brands claim that cereal and milk breakfast provides not only proteins, but also the other essential nutrients. Presweetened and unsweetened cereals contain various amounts of sugars which can be cariogenic but when consumed with milk their cariogenic potential drops down as a result of less oral retention time. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of commonly consumed breakfast cereals on plaque acidogenicity available in Indian market. Materials and methods: 25 volunteers who reported to the department of M.A. Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune were included in the study. Five commercially available cereal types in the Indian market were divided into two subgroups flavored and unflavored. Plain cereals with nuts came under the unflavored group. Cereal with fruits, chocolates and honey were used under flavored group. Subjects were made to consume 30gms of cereal with 60 m L of plain milk Cereals were compared by evaluating the pH of plaque at different time intervals taken at baseline and at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes using pH meter. Result: In unflavored group, cereals with nuts had maximum pH drop between 10-15 minutes. In flavored group honey and chocolate had maximum pH drop at 15 minutes. Conclusion: The results were statistically significant between 15-30 minutes suggesting flavored cereals are more cariogenic than unflavored cereals.