Effectiveness of rebon shrimp crackers on increasing salivary calcium ion concentration of students in Percobaan Public Elementary School Medan

Rebon shrimp is a local food in Bagan Serdang Village that has a very high nutritional content. One hundred grams of dried rebon contains 2.306 mg of calcium or equal to 16 times the calcium of 100 grams of cow's milk. Calcium takes part in preventing demineralization by keeping the pH neutral. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rebon shrimp crackers to increase salivary calcium ion among elementary school children. This type of research is an experimental study with pre and post test group design to obtain the average calcium ions in saliva before and one month after consuming rebon shrimp crackers. The minimum sample size were 40 samples, which 20 samples were included in the intervention group who were given each day one pack each for 30 days during school breaks and supervised by teachers, while 20 samples were included in the control group and were not given crackers. Saliva sampling was carried out using the unstimulated method. The concentration of salivary calcium ions before and after given the intervention was measured using paired t test and to analyze the difference in the concentration of salivary calcium ions between the two groups using an unpaired t test. There was a significant difference in the concentration of salivary calcium ions between the group given rebon shrimp crackers and the group that was not given rebon shrimp crackers (p=0.034). There was a significant increase in the concentration of salivary calcium ions before and after being given rebon shrimp crackers (p=0.000), whereas in the untreated group that was not given crackers there was no significant increase (p=0.496). It can be concluded that the risk of dental caries can be reduced by consuming local food ingredients that are high in calcium and minerals.