Dental Erosion and Diet in Young Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Dental erosion is the irreversible loss of tooth enamel caused by acid attack without any bacterial involvement. Interest in dental erosion has increased considerably during the past decade. This paper aims to determine the prevalence of and association of dental erosion with diet or beverages in children. A systematic review of the literature has been carried out in accordance with the PRISMA recommendations. A search was performed in PubMed, Embase Scopus and Web of Science databases, and completed manually. Those studies that dealt with erosive risk factors related to diet and that included their effect on deciduous or mixed dentition were selected. Dual independent screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment were concluded. A total number of 708 articles were identified from the initial electronic search of the four databases. Some 466 articles were selected after duplicated articles were discarded. After reading the title and abstract, we eliminated 376 articles; the remaining 90 were meant to be read in order that we could dispatch the ones that did not answer the research question or the inclusion criteria. A total of 25 articles remained for the systematic review. Erosive lesions are favored by the consumption of carbonated and isotonic drinks, fruit juices and acid sauces. Carbonated, isotonic drinks and fruit drinks favor the development of erosive lesions, not so the consumption of fruit juices mixed with dairy products such as milkshakes, yogurts and/or tea. The findings of this article will help researchers, academics and students to characterize the scientific results regarding dental erosion and diet, to evaluate management strategies and to identify significant topics and questions that will help to design future research with the aim of the prevention of the disease. Registration number: CDR42023389750.