MATERIALS AND METHODS: Beverages were purchased from a local convenience store, and some of the beverages were freshly prepared. The acidity of each beverage was identified using a calibrated pH meter. The pH was obtained in triplicate, and the results were expressed in average values with standard deviations. The pH values were then used to determine their erosive potential and the sugar content was obtained from the packaging and recorded.
RESULTS: A total of 167 beverages were purchased and categorized. The beverages were categorized into 15 groups: milk tea, hawker drinks, instant drinks, fresh fruit juices, milk, energy drinks, designer coffee, soda, canned drinks, cultured milk, vegetable juices, cordials, bottled fruit drinks, tea, and mineral water. The pH value ranges from 2.65 to 7.85. Seven beverages (4.2%) were classified as extremely erosive, 53 beverages (31.1%) were classified as erosive, and 36 beverages (21.6%) were classified as minimally erosive. In total, 57.5% of the beverages were potentially erosive, and most of the soda and energy drinks were erosive. The highest sugar content per 100 g was BOH Teh Tarik Original (71.8 g), whereas the highest sugar content per serving was Carabao energy drink (10.8 g).
CONCLUSION: High sugar content and low acidic content of beverages could have a negative impact on the dentition. An intervention is required from a public health perspective to regulate the consumption of sweetened and flavored beverages.
METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched using the keywords "EBV or Epstein Barr virus and Oral cancer or Oral squamous cell carcinoma" for published case-control studies in the English language upto August 2019.
RESULTS: The search yielded 985 articles out of which 966 articles were excluded by screening their titles and abstracts as they were irrelevant or duplicates. Based on the full-text assessment of the remaining 19 articles, only 7 satisfied the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis, out of which only 4 were compatible to be included in the meta-analysis. The diagnostic modalities used included immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction. The diagnostic targets included latent membrane protein (LMP)-1, EBV determined nuclear antigen-1, EBV-encoded small non-polyadenylated RNA-2. The meta-analysis showed that there is an association between the EBV and OSCC.
CONCLUSIONS: Determining the association of EBV with OSCC is highly tedious due to the contrasting data obtained from individuals' studies which in turn is due to the wide variations in the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic modalities used and diagnostic targets selected. Although the meta-analysis revealed an association between EBV and OSCC, the number and the quality of the studies included in the meta-analysis are limited, thus the association requires further validation for any conclusive inference.