THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS KINDS OF SUGARS ON THE CALCIUM DEGRADATION OF THE TOOTH ENAMEL CAUSE

Rao, Priyanka

Streptococcus mutans is a gram positive, anaerobic bacteria that lives in the deep crevices of the mouth. It metabolizes sugar to form polysaccharides and lactic acids. These substances help with calcium degradation of the teeth.The purpose of this project is to test the sugar that causes the least amount of calcium degradation of the teeth. It is hypothesized that if different kinds of sugars are incubated with Streptococcus mutans and human teeth, then xylitol will cause the least amount of calcium degradation of the teeth and have the highest pH value. This was tested by randomly placing 60 human teeth into 60 different test tubes filled with a specific solution containing Streptococcus mutans, Todd-Hewitt Broth, and a specific type of sugar. The teeth were then checked for calcium degradation every 24 hours for 96 hours. The final mass change was found by subtracting the mass after being subjected to treatment from the mass before. The pH of each solution was found and recorded each day. An analysis of variance of the change in mass run. It was found that the change in mass was not significant between each sugar, F(3, 48)=0.4, p>0.05. But, an analysis of variance showed that the pH was significant between each sugar, F(3, 48)=15.77, p<0.01. Post hoc analyses were performed using the Scheffé test to identify where significant differences between the sugars exist. The analyses indicated that glucose differed significantly from the other sugars. No other differences were found.