Poonam Jain of the Southern
Illinois School of Dental Medicine and her colleagues have bad news for energy
drink consumers. These acidic beverages may be dissolving your tooth enamel.
Sports drinks are also not great for teeth, but not nearly as bad.
Many people lump sports and energy drinks together, but they’re actually
somewhat different. Sports drinks contain carbohydrates and electrolytes. They
were originally formulated in the ‘60’s to combat the dehydration and
electrolyte loss that is associated with intense physical exercise. Energy
drinks also have carbohydrates, but add caffeine, often in high and unregulated
amounts. Developed within the last few decades, energy drinks purport not only
to improve physical stamina and performance, but also to affect weight loss and
mental concentration.
For this study, the researchers
used 13 popular name brand sports drinks and 9 popular energy drinks. Three
samples of each product were tested for fluoride levels, pH and titratable
acidity (the amount of sodium hydroxide required to neutralize a solution).
Titratable acidity (TA) indicates how difficult it is to make a solution lose
its acidity.
Three of each type of drink (sports--Gatorade
Rain, Powerade Option, and Propel Grape and energy--Monster Assault, Red Bull,
and 5-Hour Energy) were used to test enamel
dissolution. Slivers of enamel from extracted teeth were alternately immersed
in one of the drinks for 15 minutes and then in artificial saliva for two
hours, four times each day for five days. The enamel was stored in fresh
artificial saliva between trials and fresh energy/sports drinks were used each
day.
Both types of drinks had much
lower fluoride levels than the recommendation for drinking water. Both types of
drinks had pH levels well below that at which enamel begins to demineralize
(though sports drinks tended to be lower than energy drinks).
The greatest difference between the
types of drinks was in TA. Sports drinks had an average TA of 3.6, but energy
drinks had a TA of 11.8. This difference was correlated with the enamel
dissolution tests. After five days of cycling through drinks and saliva, the
enamel in the sports drinks had lost 1.5% by weight, and the enamel in the
energy drinks had lost 3.1%.
Update 6/8/12: When I told a friend how energy drinks dissolve teeth, he suggested that people drink them through a straw. If you don't want to give these drinks up, why not use his great idea?
No comments:
Post a Comment