Popular Drinks Eat Away at Tooth Enamel ... (Gatorade, Red Bull and Coke)

[RedEarth]

THURSDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Worried about sugary drinks rotting your teeth?

A new study suggests the acid in popular refreshments can cause dental damage, too.

Just one day's worth of soaking in Gatorade, Red Bull or Coke ate into the hard enamel surface of teeth, according to a study by University of Iowa researchers.

"This isn't so much about sugar as it is about acid," said Dr. John Luther, associate executive director of the division of dental practice at the American Dental Association. "I don't think the public has thought about acidity; they tend to think in terms of sugar."

But another expert said the study's design was "too simplistic" and not reflective of daily exposure to liquids by teeth.

Dr. Paul Casamassimo, a professor and chairman of the department of pediatric dentistry at Ohio State University, said that "when most drinks -- sports drinks, orange juice, carbonated beverages -- are used the way they are supposed to be, it's not a problem."

Most experts agree that the acid in many popular beverages can etch into the thin layer of enamel that covers and protects the exposed areas of teeth. It can also damage the cementum -- the hard layer of calcified tissue that covers the unexposed root area of the tooth.

http://www.drkoop.com/PrinterFriendly/93/531449.html

[niyad]

1. gee, we use coke to clean the battery terminals in our cars, and we don't

know about the acid? I don't think so.

[Love Bug]

2. For years I've heard you can clean the battery cables on your car with

coke, so this doesn't surprise me at all.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Well, if Coke & Pepsi can remove paint from a car,then little wonder about

tooth enamel.

[JohnWxy]

9. I've never heard anything about Pepsi dissolving stuff like Coke can.

I don't drink either. I used to drink 7-up until they made it sickening sweet.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. My anecdotal experience

I worked in a Major Brand Name soda bottling plant one summer. The soda was free and unlimited as long as it was consumed on premises. The production line workers as a group had the worst tooth decay that I'd ever seen in one place. It was evident even in workers in their 30s. That and watching the effect of the acid on the tanks has made me cautious about drinking the stuff ever since.

[woodsprite]

5. Wonder how long it took them to come up with this?

A boy in my daughter's 6th grade science class last year did his science project on it. They found Coke and Pepsi performed equally - ate the tooth enamel, but Diet Coke actually ate it faster. Seven-Up and GingerAle did the least damage.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Very old news (which still needs to be disseminated)

When I was in elementary school more than a quarter of a century ago, I did a number of science fairs. I remember one second place winner who had taken animal teeth, tied them to strings, and left them half submerged in various beverages for a week. There were a dozen drinks; I remember Coke, Tab, Kool-Aid, a mix of two quarts of water and one cup of sugar (Kool-Aid without the Kool-Aid), plain carbonated water, whole milk, and plain water. The teeth that had been in the soda pop had almost rotted away, even in the Tab (but not as badly as the teeth in the sugared sodas.) The plain water did best, of course. The problem, I know now, is the combination of sugar and phosphoric acid.

[tridim]

7. Once again the Mythbusters have already done a show on this

They seem to always have it all covered. :)

[undergroundpanther]

8. can they make coke

without the phsphoric acid in it?