Investigating the relationship between vegetarian diet and its effect on dental health: a systematic review
Investigating the relationship between vegetarian diet and its effect on dental health: a systematic review
Maryam Soleimani,1Shahrzad Rashidi,2Fateme Sajedifar,3Khadijeh Momeni,4,*
1. student research committiee, Qazvin university of Medical science, Qazvin, Iran 2. BC.Nutrition science student at Zanjan university of medical sciense 3. Pakdasht, Tehran 4. Department of Operating Room, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Bushehr University of medical sciences, Bushehr, Iran
Introduction: Nowadays, the number of people who are interested in vegetarian diet has been risen. Vegetarianism is a diet that follows some roles like not eating animals or anything that is their product, such as milk or honey. A well-planned vegetarian diet can provide all the nutrients that human body needs, but there are still some concerns about uptaking some nutrients like protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, vitamin D and calcium. Studies till now didn’t show if there is a relation between vegetarian diet and dental health but since it’s been proven that there is a strong link between dental health and acidic foods and lacking of some nutrients and duo to the high prevalence of toothache in about 2.5 billion people around the world, this field of study needs more attention.
Methods: For this research, existing articles in PubMed, Web of Science, Sid, and Google Scholar databases that have been published till 2022 are systematically selected, and 5 articles are included in this study. This research is done in English considering the following keywords: vegetarian, toothache, dental health, nutrients, diet.
Results: There are some pore evidences that vegetarian diet is associated with dental erosion.
In a study between a vegetarian and control group, there was no significant difference in tooth erosion.
Comparison between vegetarian groups and non-vegetarian groups showed that vegetarians have an upper degree in tooth wear.
Conclusion: According to studies we reviewed, there was no direct link between vegetarian diet and dental erosion but, duo to highly consume of acidic foods by vegetarians, there was higher occurrence of non-carious cavities in teeth in vegetarians. Based on studies, it can be guessed that better dental hygiene among raw vegans comes from their chosen lifestyle.