Methods: 25 flat, mounted bovine enamel specimens were divided into 5 groups of 5. The ‘Friday diet' comprised breakfast (grapefruit juice followed by toast and marmalade) followed by toothbrushing, lunch (vegetable pasta and Coca-Cola Zero) and dinner (curry and lager followed by mulled cider and peanuts) followed by toothbrushing. One group was exposed to all 3 meals, 3 groups were exposed to a single meal and the control group had water substituted for all food and drink. Each specimen was exposed to their assigned meal or meals twice to represent “two days” of meals and stored in deionised water between challenges. Specimens were immersed in wet foods and drinks, stirred at 0.25 m.s-1, whilst dry foodstuffs were rubbed onto specimens with a force of 300g. Specimens were brushed in 1:3 slurry of Colgate Total and deionised water. Non-contact profilometry was used to quantify TTL.
Results: Specimens subjected to all 3 meals exhibited slightly more TTL than the sum of the individual TTL from specimens exposed to one meal only (22.5 and 20.6 µm respectively), but ANOVA with Tukey's HSD test indicated that this difference was not statistically different.
Conclusion: The effect of repeated TTL challenges was additive. This can be considered when investigating the erosive potential of food stuffs in a whole diet rather than only due to isolated wear incidents.