If you are among the millions of people who are chronic sports and energy drinkaholics, you might want to consider another way to energize and re-energize yourself during the day. According to a study that appeared on the peer reviewed General Dentistry journal, too many sports and energy drinks hurt your oral health by causing irreparable damage to your tooth enamel – the shiny covering that makes your teeth pearly white.
Read your Dentist In Bondi tells you how sports and energy drinks threaten your dental health.
Glorified Sodas
Too many people believe that consuming sports drinks are generally healthier than drinking soda and other sugary carbonated drinks. Researchers, however, report that popular brands of sports and energy drinks contain acidity levels that are high enough to cause damage.
Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Center remark “Bacteria convert sugar to acid, and it’s the acid bath that damages enamel, not the sugar directly. So by incorporating a high acid load in a drink, we are just cutting out the middleman on the way to tooth decay. These drinks are glorified sodas, with as much or more sugar.”
The Study
The study was able to analyze 13 sports drinks and 9 energy drinks. Upon concluding the study, researchers found out that the acidity levels between different brands of sports drinks vary greatly from each other. The same is true for different flavours of the same brand.
The methodology of the study mainly consists of submerging human tooth enamel into different sports and energy drink samples for 15 minutes within a 5 day period. Every day, after the 15 minute sports and energy drink immersion, the tooth enamel is immersed and store in artificial human saliva.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Poonam Jain remarks that the study simulates the average exposure to sports and energy drinks that many adolescents and young adults subject their teeth to on a daily basis
Conclusion
The study concluded that it only takes 5 days for sports and energy drinks to inflict evident tooth enamel damage. The researchers also discover that energy drinks inflict 2 times more tooth enamel damage than sports drinks. The study was also able to conclude that any damage inflicted on the tooth enamel by regular or frequent exposure to these highly acidic products is permanent.
Prevention
The simplest way to avoid any related tooth enamel damage is to stop drinking any sports and energy drink altogether. However, if this is not possible, cutting down on your consumption would be the next best thing to do. Also, it helps if you rinse your mouth with water every time you consume these products as water has the natural ability to dilute most damage-causing acids. Be careful, however, not to brush your teeth immediately after drinking any sports and energy drink as this tends to further any tooth enamel damage.
Dentist In Bondi: Bondi Dental
There is no better way to protect your teeth against cavities and prevent the onset of tooth decay than by visiting your local dentist on a regular basis. Being a well established dental practice in the local Bondi community, Bondi Dental is home to a group of dental professionals who has collectively accumulated 60 years of experience in all aspects of dentistry.
Call your Bondi dentist on (02) 9365 7187 or book your appointment online.
Visit us at 134 Curlewis St in Bondi Beach.
