Laboratory Evaluation of the Effect of Common Snacks Consumption on Oral Saliva pH

The type of diet is one of the important causes of caries and one of the techniques to evaluate the carcinogenicity of foods is to measure the pH of saliva after consuming them. This study aimed to measure the pH of artificial saliva after exposure to a series of common snacks in the community. In this laboratory study, all samples (including 18 common snacks in the community) were completely crushed. Then, 8 g of each sample was dissolved in 50 ml of artificial saliva and continuously mixed with a magnet in a human. The pH of the solutions was then measured by a digital pH meter at intervals of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 minutes after the onset of dissolution. Statistical analysis was performed with related tests and SPSS statistical software version 22. The pH of all groups except chocolate and whole wheat biscuits decreased significantly during 10 minutes (P-value <0.05). The obtained results indicated that the groups lowered the pH of artificial saliva below the critical pH (5.5) including vinegar chips, peanut vinegar, cherry industrial dish, home-made dish, industrial swallow, house swallow, and plum. The pH level of the other groups was higher than the limit was critical. The snack with the least pH change and the snack with the most and most severe pH change were whole-grain biscuits and homemade desserts, respectively. All snacks tested except chocolate and whole wheat biscuits significantly reduced the pH of artificial saliva. The pH drop was high for acidic groups.