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Introduction: Acidic foods including pempek sauce that belongs to Indonesian traditional cuisine may cause demineralization in the teeth, resulting in a decrease in tooth enamel surface hardness. A modified pempek sauce is required to generate a new formula in order to preventing tooth demineralization. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of modified pempek sauce added with cucumber and dried shrimp on tooth enamel hardness value. Materials and methods: This study was an experimental laboratory research with a pretest-posttest design. Thirty extracted maxillary premolars were used in the study and then divided into two groups. Group 1 was soaked in original pempek sauce, while group 2 was immersed in a modified pempek sauce by adding cucumber and dried shrimp. The enamel hardness values were measured before and after soaking the teeth in original and modified pempek sauce. The tooth hardness was measured using a Micro Vickers Hardness Tester. The data were analyzed using a Paired t-test and Mann Whitney test to determine the difference of tooth hardness alteration in the two groups. Results: The original pempek sauce significantly reduced the enamel hardness value, otherwise the hardness value was significantly increased after tooth immersion in modified pempek sauce. Meanwhile, It showed that the enamel hardness score in the original group was significantly lower than the one in the modified sauce. Conclusion: Pempek sauce with the addition of cucumber and dried shrimp could increase the tooth enamel hardness value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Saliva plays a critical role in preventing dental caries through regulation of pH, flow rate and proteins of saliva. Tea leaves from black tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the plants containing catechins that has shown to influence secretion of saliva, thus it can inhibit the development of caries. This study aimed to investigate the effect of consuming black tea (Camellia sinensis) on level of salivary pH, flow rate and secreted lysozyme in caries and caries-free subjects. Materials and methods: Saliva was obtained from twenty four participants divided into two categories, caries and caries free group. Subjects were asked to collect saliva before and 30 minutes after drinking a cup of tea. Salivary pH was measured using a digital pH meter, while the flow rate was measured by weighing the collected saliva divided by time. The concentration of lysozyme was assessed by using ELISA kit. The data were analyzed using paired t-test and Mann Whitney test. Results: The results showed that black tea significantly increased pH and salivary flow rate, but had no significant effect on salivary lysozyme. It also demonstrated that there was no significant difference on salivary pH, flow rate, lysozyme after drinking black tea in the caries subjects compared to the caries free. Conclusion: Although drinking black tea could raise salivary pH and flow rate, but it did not promote the increase of lysozyme. This finding suggests that black tea had no unfavourable impact on saliva in oral environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]