Sour Candies Are More Erosive Than Their Standard Counterparts

The erosive nature of acidic beverages has been confirmed in vitro; however, the ability of sour candies to erode enamel has not been investigated.

Objective: We compared erosion potentials of sour candies to their standard varieties, and compared erosion potentials between candies dissolved in artificial saliva and water.

Methods: Select sour candies and their standard counterparts were dissolved in an inorganic artificial saliva or water to form candy slurries (40g candy/250 ml solvent). Erosion potential was determined by immersing extracted human molars and premolars (n=5/candy) with 1x4 mm windows in randomly assigned candy slurries for 25 hours, with slurries refreshed every 5 hours. Following exposure, teeth were sectioned with a microtome and photographed using a polarized light microscope. Lesion depths were measured using Image Pro Plus software. The two-samples t-test was used to compare average lesion depths between exposures.

Results: In artificial saliva, lesion depths were greater following exposure to sour candies than to standard candies for Jolly Ranchers® (224±24 vs. 67±6µm; p<0.001), Life Savers® (109±18 vs. 69±5 µm; p=0.037) and Mike & Ike's® (94±30 vs. 8±19µm; p=0.010), but not for Twizzlers® (p=0.140). In water solvent, lesion depths were greater following exposure to sour candies than to standard candies for Mike&Ike's® (204±12 vs. 66±9µm; p=0.012) and Twizzlers® (200±28 vs. 23±15µm; p<0.001), but not for Life Savers® (p=0.775) or Jolly Ranchers® (p=0.393). Lesion depths were greater with the water solvent than the artificial saliva for standard Jolly Ranchers® (p=0.008), standard Lifesavers® (p=0.007), standard Mike&Ike's® (p=0.010), sour Lifesavers® (p=0.002), sour Mike&Ike's® (p=0.012), and sour Twizzlers® (p<0.001), but not for standard Twizzlers® (p=0.119) or sour Jolly Ranchers® (0.060).

Conclusion: Our data suggests that sour candies are more erosive than their standard counterparts, and that artificial saliva protects against erosion from both sour and standard candies in an in vitro model. Support: T32 DEO14678-05