The effect of the frequently prescribed pediatric drugs on the microhardness of the permanent tooth enamel evaluation in terms of in vitro

Dental erosion is a multifactorial process resulting from internal, external, or idiopathic factors. It is defined as a progressive, irreversible loss of hard tissue of the tooth by acid dissolution without bacterial involvement. Changing habits in modern society; especially in children and adolescents, increase the incidence of tooth erosion. Dental erosion becomes a potential problem due to long-term medication for acute or chronic diseases and drugs that have been in the oral cavity for a long time. In our study, it is aimed to evaluate in vivo the effect of frequently prescribed pediatric drugs on permanent dental microhardness due to the increased use of oral medication in children with acute or chronic illness in recent years. In the study, non-cariogenic, healthy 48 permanent molar teeth that freshly extracted and 11 drugs that have different active ingredients were used. In the study, the samples were arranged to be 7 tooth enamel samples in each acrylic block and and total acrylic blocks' number were 12. Excess acrylic block was identified as the control group and immersed in distilled water. The pH titratable acidity and buffering capacities of the used drugs, were measured before immersion cycles. Immersion cycles were applied three times in a day for 1 minute. Measurements of the prepared samples were repeated at days 0, 7, 14 after immersion cycles. The microhardness measurement was made using a Vickers hardness tester. Analysis of Variance in used recurrent measurements, Bonferroni test in used paired comparison and One-way ANOVA test was used to compare the measurement data of three or more independent groups. All drugs except prednisolone showed that a statistically significant decrease in microhardness values at 7th and 14th days compared to baseline measurements on samples (p <0.05). Although sample's that immersed drug whose active substance is prednisolone microhardness values also decreased, but not statistically significant (p= 0.191). No significant difference was found in control group which was immersioned in distiled water. According to this, frequently prescribed pediatric drugs can cause erosive effects on the teeth, parents should be warned that they should also pay special attention to oral hygiene after drug use, when pediatricians prescribe medicines they should have information about their erosive potentials and should be in cooperation with pedodontists. Key Words: Dental erosion, microhardness, pediatric syrup, permanent tooth.