Effect of Consuming Milk Tea with Stevia on Plaque pH among Dental Students: Cross-Over RCT

Background: Stevia is a natural, healthy, unconventional replacement to the table sugar and artificial sweetener. Phytochemicals present in it exerts an influence on the microbial flora of the mouth. Hence, study was planned to compare the effects of stevia with different sugars on the plaque pH. Methodology: The present study was carried in department of Public Health Dentistry between 9am-12pm. It was a triple blinded Crossover Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial with LSD design. All the 40 subjects were exposed to all four interventions sequentially, at weekly intervals with 1 week wash out period. (Intervention: A- Table sugar, B- Jaggery, C- Stevia, D- Milk tea without sugar). Inferential statistics was done using Repeated measures of ANOVA followed by Post hoc pairwise comparison and Three-way RMANOVA to determine relationship between SUGAR * WEEK * TIME interaction. Level of significance was set at p value at 0.05. Results: Plaque pH assessments were performed at 4 points of time intervals (at baseline, 1 min, 20min, 60 min). Overall significance differences were seen in plaque pH at different time intervals for all interventions. Intergroup comparison showed potential efficacy of stevia in maintaining plaque pH. Conclusion: In the present study, it was found that stevia has the least cariogenic potential when compared with jaggery and refined sugar. Jaggery also did not show a significant reduction in plaque pH. Therefore, Stevia and Jaggery can be compared for their anti-cariogenic properties. This study has been registered under the Clinical Trial Registry of India CTRI/2020/12/03003