The eternal ideal of beauty, the desire to feel good about oneself and be valued by the group in which he lives end up leading some people, especially young people and teenagers, to risk too much looking for the body "Perfect".
Nowadays, the standard of beauty in society in general, and which is shown in advertisements, is to be thin, often bordering on malnutrition. However, in this eagerness to enhance the body, people end up getting the opposite effect, lose their health and get a sickly and unwanted aspect.
An example that illustrates this well is the consequences of a disease called bulimia. THE bulimia it is a psychosomatic alteration that causes some changes in human behavior, mainly related to food.This change can cause some people after eating a food to start provoke vomiting, in order to prevent the body from absorbing this food.
But, by doing this the person ends up causing the deterioration of your teeth, because the hydrochloric acid (HCl) present in the gastric juice of the stomach is eliminated along with the vomit, which favors the corrosion of the teeth.
To understand how this happens, let's look at the constitution of the teeth.
The main component of tooth enamel is the hydroxyapatite (Here5OH(PO4)3(s)), a mineral that is insoluble in water but partially soluble in acids. And the hydrochloric acid in the stomach is actually very acidic, and the mouth can even reach a pH of around 1.5. Thus, when it comes into contact with teeth, this acid attacks them.
Hydroxyapatite undergoes a process called demineralization, which can be represented by the chemical equation below:
Note that there is a chemical balance, as there is also the inverse process, of formation of hydroxyapatite, called mineralization. However, if the medium is acidic, the H ions+ react with OH ions- formed in the demineralization of hydroxyapatite and also transform the PO ions43- in HPO42-:
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With this the balance is unbalanced, since the OH ions- and PO43- are consumed, there is a shift towards increasing their formation, that is, to the right. Demineralization is favored and there is a higher consumption of hydroxyapatite. Furthermore, the salt formed in the above reaction is soluble in water and, for this reason, part of the hydroxyapatite dissolves, making the teeth fragile.
Over time, this demineralization causes cavities in the teeth, which can lead to caries.
Toothpaste is alkaline (pH > 7), which helps to reduce acidity in the mouth. In addition, the presence of fluoride ions in water and dental care products can help restore balance as it replaces hydroxyl (OH) ions.-) in hydroxyapatite, forming another mineral, fluorapatite, which protects teeth as it is more resistant to acid attack. This is possible because, as shown in the reaction below, the OH ion is not formed in its dissociation-, who would react with the H+ of the acid:
Proper brushing and regular dental appointments can help to combat tooth decay. However, this is just one of the effects of bulimia. The person who has this psychological illness usually hides it from family members and, instead of being able to feel good about themselves, ends up having low self esteem, because he feels he has no self-control. Also, some gastrointestinal disorders, which can be serious or even fatal, occur associated with bulimia.
but luckily bulimia is curable, the person must seek medical and family help, and their treatment may include the use of antidepressant or anxiolytic drugs prescribed by the doctor, monitoring by a nutritionist for an adequate and healthy diet, individual and group therapy and a lot of strength of will.
By Jennifer Fogaça
Graduated in Chemistry
