Team:UCSC/Dental

Dental Researcher

   Now that we understood what the public fears regarding the negative health consequences of zero-calorie sweeteners, we wanted to better understand the positive health consequences as well. For this we decided to explore the consequences in an area that is pertinent to all of us; so pertinent in fact that most of us can neither start our day nor end it without tending to it first: our dental health. Numerous well-cited research articles have established an understanding throughout the dental community that high sugar consumption can pose a serious risk to dental health, and therefore zero-calorie sweeteners may have a role to play in caries reduction.

   In order to better understand what current research is suggesting, we decided to speak with Dr. Alireza Moshaverinia, a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics and a tenure track assistant professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Alireza has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals serves on the editorial review board for several scientific journals, including the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. Given his expertise, our interview was focused upon what role sugar plays in dental health, a brief discussion on the scientific underpinnings of sugar’s effect on dental health, and what role zero-calorie sweeteners could play in dental health.

   We learned from Dr. Moshaverinia multiple interesting points that influenced our understanding of the health consequences of zero-calorie sweeteners. Firstly, Alireza explained that sugar not only plays an immensely important role in dental health, but interestingly that the most important aspect of sugar consumption on dental health was not the amount of sugar we consumed, but the frequency at which we consume it. Therefore, it was not the large amount of sugar in the average American meal that was taking the greatest toll, rather it was all of the high-sugar snacks we eat or drink in-between. This instilled the team with greater confidence in the positive role zero-calorie sweeteners could play in American health, since it was these high-sugar snacks that are most easily replaced with zero-calorie alternatives. Additionally, Alireza revealed to us that new dental studies were suggesting that zero-calorie sweeteners, more specifically sugar alcohols such as Erythritol, prevent caries not only by reducing sugar intake, but surprisingly by also possessing cavity-fighting qualities on their own. With this newfound knowledge, the team had even greater hope that the public perception of these sweeteners could take a change for the better.