Pineapple Fruit and Stem Chewing PreventsDental Plaque pH Drop after Meals

Abstract

Eating Fruit has long believed given good benefit not only for the body but also for dental health. Any sugar contact with the teeth after meals will make a pH drop in dental plaque which can lead to enamel demineralization and tooth decay in a period of time. Pineapple has Bromelain as antibacterial agent and mostly found in the stem and at small amount in the fruit. This research conducted to assess the effect of Pineapple chewingto the dental plaque pH and to compare the effect of pineapple fruit and stem chewing on dental plaque pH. We recruited 10 subjects (aged 19-22 years) with free caries to chewed 100 grams of pineapple fruit and 2 grams of pineapple stem after eating plaque inducer meals. Dental plaque were collected at 4 consecutive time (before chewing pineapple, 25 minutes after chewing, 50 minutes after chewing and 75 minutes after chewing) followed by pH measurement of the dental plaque. Our finding showed that the Dental plaque pH drop from 6.1 to 5.7 for control while for pineapple fruit group the pH drop from 6.35 to 6.04 and for Pineapple stem group were 6.20 to 6.09. When compared the Dental plaque pH after Pineapple chewing between the 100 grams of fruit and 2 gram of stem, no significant difference were found.
But when compared with control (without Pineapple chewing), significant difference were found at 25 minutes after pineapple stem (p=0.021) and at 75 minutes after Pineapple fruit (p=0.005) and Pineapple stem (p=0.012) chewing. Chewing fruit was effective to prevent the Dental plaque pH drop after eating meals. Chewing 2 grams of pineapple stem showed no significant difference with chewing 100 grams of pineapple fruit.