You probably already know that soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and other sugar-sweetened beverages are not good for your general health. Not only are they not good for your general well-being, they are particularly harmful to your oral health. But you may not know how or why. This is what you need to know:
Fizzy drinks contain more than 5 teaspoons of sugar, with some containing as much as 15 teaspoons.
Among adolescents, a study reported 97 percent of 1,000 respondents consumed at least 35cl of soft drinks daily. That’s equivalent to consuming around 9 teaspoons of sugar. Nigeria ranks 4th in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide.
People who consume one or two drinks a day have a higher chance of developing diabetes, cancer, and obesity, among other conditions than people who rarely do.
These drinks can erode the enamel (the outermost layer of the tooth), making your teeth susceptible to decay and holes. This is because they contain a high content of sugar and also acids.
The acidic contents of soft drinks are majorly citric and phosphoric acids and, together with sugar content, cause demineralization of your tooth substance. Here’s how:
After sugar intake, demineralization of the tooth surfaces takes place due to the drop in pH as the bacteria in the mouth convert the sugar to acid. After 20-30 minutes, the saliva buffers the pH and returns it to normal level.
Increased frequency of sugar intake means demineralization occurs more often, and the periods between drops in pH are not long enough to allow effective remineralization of your tooth to happen.
More demineralization than remineralization, as a result of a host of other factors, is what eventually leads to a hole (which is known as a dental cavity or a carious lesion) in your tooth.
How to Prevent Cavities in Your Teeth
This is what you can do to prevent cavity formation in your tooth:
1. Always rinse your mouth thoroughly with lots of water to dilute the acid, and refrain from brushing immediately after taking soft drinks because the brushing effect, together with acids, can wear off your enamel.
2. Choose to drink through a straw.
3. Decrease the frequency and quantity of fizzy drinks that you take.
4. Chew sugar-free gums that will stimulate saliva production and flow
5. Don’t hold drink in your mouth for a long time before you swallow
6. Visit your dentist to draw up a personal plan.
If you are worried about the appearance and functionality of your broken or fractured tooth, contact your dentist or book an appointment now.