In vitro and in situ evaluation of the erosive potential of the orange juice modified with calcium and some food-approved polimers

The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro and in situ the erosive potential of the orange juice modified with calcium and some food-approved polymers. This study was divided into four fases. In the first, the following substances: calcium lactate (Ca), xanthan gum (XG), sodium hexametaphosphate (HMP), sodium trypoliphosphate (STP), sodium pyrophosphate (PP) and some of their combinations were added to a commercially available orange juice, creating 15 modified juices. The juice without additives was used as a negative control (C-) and a commercially available calcium-modified juice as positive control (C+). These juices were tested for erosive potential using pH-stat. The response variable was the volume of titrant needed to maintain the pH of the juices in their baseline values. After, six selected juices were tested in the second phase with an erosion-remineralization cycling model. In the third phase, the erosion and remineralization episodes were tested independently. The reponse variable for these phases was surface microhardness for enamel and optical perfilometry for enamel and dentin. In the fourth phase, the juices Ca, Ca+HMP and HMP, plus the controls were tested with an erosion in situ model, consisting of a 5-phase, single blind crossover clinical trial involving 10 subjects. In each phase, subjects inserted custom-made palatal appliances containing enamel specimens in the mouth and, after 5 min equilibration period, performed erosive challenges for total of 0 (control), 10, 20, and 30 min. Two specimens were randomly removed from the appliances, after each challenge period. The reponse variable was the percentage of surface microhardness change. Before the procedures, in each phase, the subjects performed a taste test, where the modified juice assigned to that phase was blindly compared to C-. In first phase, all the additives were able to reduce the erosive potential of the juice, except the addition of XG alone. In the second phase, no detectable enamel loss was observed when Ca, HMP and Ca+HMP were added to the juice; XG, STP and PP had enamel loss similar to C-. Ca+HMP showed the lowest reduction in the surface microhardness, followed by Ca;all the other groups presented a reduction in the surface microhardness similar to C-. For dentin, only Ca+HMP reduced surface loss. In the third phase, Ca, HMP and Ca+HMP protected against erosion; and none of the tested compounds seemed to interfere with the remineralization process. In the fourth phase, Ca and Ca+HMP reduced erosion, with no difference between them.