Soft Drinks and Teeth

Carbonated or ‘soft’ drinks seem to be a massive part of everyday life nowadays. Some chain restaurants offer refillable options, nearly all restaurants offer them as a choice. They form part of the supermarket lunchtime meal deals… It seems just as normal to opt for a soft drink as for a glass of water with a meal. Yet soft drinks have become so normalised that the true effects on your overall health seem to be ignored. So what do soft drinks really mean for our bodies? One thing you need to be doing is checking the labels. Many of these drinks contain high levels of sugar – and sugar is one of the worst ingredients for your teeth. Sugar is a high energy food and the bacteria in your mouth will feast off it, releasing high levels of acid as they do so. This acid will then soften your tooth enamel, leading to cavities and tooth decay. The acidic nature of some of these drinks is also a hidden danger. The acid within them works like the acid released by the bacteria: another way of softening your tooth enamel and heightening your chance of decay. So, are diet drinks a better option? While they tend to have a much lower calorie content, ultimately the acidic nature of these drinks still make them a poor choice for the overall condition of your teeth. Both diet and regular options still tend to offer little benefit to our health. The artificial sweeteners still trick your body into thinking it has consumed sugar. Soft drinks are often devoid of nutrients and fill you up without being much use to your body – certain drinks have even been found to leach the body of substances such as calcium and zinc. If you are concerned about the effects of soft drinks on your teeth, it’s worth booking an appointment to see your dentist. After all, the sooner a problem is spotted, the sooner it can be solved.