evaluation the effect of swimming time on dental erosion among swimmers

evaluation the effect of swimming time on dental erosion among swimmers     m. mehdipour 1 , a. taghavi zenooz 2 , n. gholizadeh 3 , a. bahramian œ 4 , n. sartip pour 5   1 associate professor, department of oral medicine , school of dentistry, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences. tehran, iran   2 associate professor, department of oral medicine , school of dentistry, tabriz university of medical sciences . tabriz , iran   3 assistant professor, department of oral medicine , school of dentistry, tehran university of medical sciences. tehran, iran   4 assistant professor, department of oral medicine , school of dentistry , tabriz university of medical sciences . tabriz , iran   5 dentist   (received 3 dec, 2011 accepted 16 aug, 2012 )     abstract   background and aim: erosion is a multi-factorial process that occurs during life and it happens by many external or internal factors . the current study aimed to evaluate the relation of swimming time and dental erosion among swimmers .   materials and methods : in this descriptive-analytical study, 84women individuals were selected. the case group included 42 swimmers who swam more than 6 hours per week and the control group comprised of 42 swimmers who swam less than 6 hours. the information regarding dental erosions and other data was collected by questionnaires. the dental erosion evaluation was performed using smith-knight index. x2 was utilized for statistical comparisons. the p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant .   results: findings revealed that the dental erosion proportions was similar among two groups and there was no relation between swimming time and dental erosion among swimmers (p-value= 0/6 , x2 = 0.26) .   conclusion: there was no relation between swimming time and dental erosion among swimmers . therefore, the role of swimming time on dental erosion was not proved .     key words: dental erosion , smith , knight index , swimming     corresponding author : dr. bahramian a ., assistant professor, department of oral medicine , school of dentistry , tabriz university of medical sciences . tabriz , iran.   e.mail: [email protected]