Some people may joke about my increased 'job security' due to the statistics about the popularity of "sweet drinks", but frankly, I find them frightening. In fact, in my 20 years in dentistry, I have seen an increase in tooth decay in both children and adults that wildly unnecessary. While sugar in soft drinks has long been known to be a culprit in this equation, I don't think many of us understood the scope of this problem. It turns out that other factors are also at work. The acidity of most bottled drinks also plays a role.

This brings a new list of offenders into play. The old list includes the old favorites like Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Sprite and Ginger ale, but the list has been expanded to include bottled iced teas, lemonades, diet drinks and sports drinks. All of these eroded the tooth enamel in laboratory studies according to J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, MSc, PhD, with the University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School because of their acidity. If mouth acidity increases -- and if it happens often enough throughout the day -- the chemical reaction hurts teeth to a greater extent. Over time the result is tooth decay. In fact, enamel damage caused by non-cola and sports drinks is 3 to 11 times greater than from cola-based drinks.

*There are some interesting new findings from his study:

• Non-cola soft drinks caused two to five times the damage as darker drinks, such as Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper.
• Canned iced tea caused 30 times the enamel damage as brewed tea or coffee.
• Non-cola drinks cause up to 180 times more tooth enamel damage than did water.
• Root beer was the safest soft drink tested.

Apparently, non-cola drinks contain flavor additives that are "far more aggressive" at eroding teeth, compared with regular cola soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi.

Here is a table of common food substances and their acidity:

mineral water (still) '�	pH 7.6 '�	'� '�
milk '�	pH 6.9 '�	'� '�
cheddar cheese '�	pH 5.9 '�	'� '�
black coffee '�	pH 5 '�	'� '�
beer pH '�	pH 4.4 '�	'� '�
orange juice '�	pH 3.8 '�	'� '�
Juicy Juice '�	pH 3.4 '�	'� '�
pickles '�	pH 3.2 '�	'� '�
Nestea	pH 3.04	'�
Diet Mountain Dew	ph 2.95	'�
Hawaiian Fruit Punch	pH 2.82 '�	'� '�
Gatorade	pH 2.83	'�
Minute Maid orange soda	pH 2.8	'�
Coca Cola	pH 2.3	'� '�
red wine '�	pH 2.5 '�	'� '�
vinegar '�	pH 2.0 '�	'� '�

 

Normally, your mouth has a pH of 6.2 - 7 and damage to your teeth begins at pH below 5.5, so you can see for yourself where your favorite drink puts you.

How to reduce decay?

• Learn and teach your children to appreciate plain cold water.
• If you are going to drink a soda, drink it right down. Never sip on a soda over a long period of time. Each acid attack lasts about 20 minutes, so every sip resets the clock.
• Chew gum with xylitol, a sugar substitute shown to discourage tooth decay and it will stimulate saliva, bringing the pH of your mouth back to normal quicker.
• One more important point for parents: remember that your children's nutrition is certain to suffer if they fill up on empty calories in bottled drinks. Foods that include vitamins, minerals and fiber will be pushed out of the diet if kids fill up on sweet drinks. There is 50% of adolescent girls that are not consuming enough calcium per day and (not surprisingly) girls who drink soda have 5 times the rate of bone fractures than those who do not drink soda.

Now you know some emerging facts about one of the most common habits in daily American life. It is good information - Food for thought - as they say. I thought I knew a lot about this subject until I did my own research and found these new insights about acidity. Naturally, with both of their parents and dentists, my kids were never big soda drinkers,but we too thought that the bottled teas and sports drinks were a better choice. I guess not!

I hope this helps you to make better choices for yourself and your family.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR KIDS TEETH

Now that all the evidence shows that erosion of enamel happens with all acidic drinks, it is clearly the responsibility of parents to monitor and limit kids' access to fruit juices, performance drinks and soda. A new paradigm needs to evolve on the subject of teaching kids to drink and enjoy good cold water and milk. There is not much more that can be said about this. If you want your child to enjoy a healthy future, as a parent, you must make permanent changes in what you buy for your kids and what they consume with the spending money you give them.

All the benefits that the current generation of young people might have had from receiving Fluoride can be completely reversed by daily consumption of juices, sports drinks and soda.

Dr. Lynda

SOURCES:

Von Fraunhofer, J. General Dentistry, July/August 2004.

Missouri Dental Association

http://www.dentalhealth.org.uk/faqs/leafletdetail.php?LeafletID=14

Science Daily (March 23, 2005)