Sparkling Mineral Water and Your Teeth

You’ve probably heard the warnings that acidic foods and drinks can inflict erosive damage to your teeth. Today it’s difficult to go a day without someone putting a bottle of bubbly drink in front of us.

Soda drinks, like cola or lemonade, deliver an acidic punch with a solid dose of sugar, widely known to be hazardous for our dental health. However, there’s an entire spectrum of acidic drinks that may also be causing erosion to the teeth.

One option, which is sparkly mineral water, is often considered safe. Studies have found, though, that it may pose as much of a danger as any other carbonated thirst quencher.

Why Are Acidic Drinks Bad for Our Teeth?

The whole problem with beverages that lower the pH in our mouth is that they interrupt the mineral exchange that occurs on the hard outer shell of your teeth. Also known as tooth enamel, that shiny white coating is a mix of minerals such as calcium and phosphate which exist in an equilibrium with our saliva and body.

During a meal, we decrease the pH of our mouth making it more acidic and our tooth enamel begins to lose minerals. Once the meal is finished, our saliva is designed to re-establish the pH balance and assists in pushing minerals back into the teeth.

If we consume foods or drinks that are acidic in nature at too high a frequency, then our saliva doesn’t get the opportunity to re-establish the balance of minerals and it may result in tooth erosion or tooth wear.

Drinks You Should Watch out For

Studies have shown that sparkling mineral water has a greater potential to dissolve tooth enamel than plain, still water. Whilst the acidity of mineral waters are higher, the mineral composition seems to have somewhat of a protective effect for tooth erosion. Compared to soft drinks, mineral waters were much less erosive. You should watch out for these drinks.

• Soda drinks: These are the big No No’s in terms of acid damage to your teeth and are probably the number one culprit for dental erosion today.
• Fruit juices: Often touted as the healthy option, fruit juices such as orange, apple, and cranberry juice are very high on the acidity scale. You should aim to limit your consumption of fruit juices and opt predominantly for eating fresh, whole fruit.
• Hot lemon water: A common craze to improve digestion. Hot lemon water in the morning can cause damage to your teeth. People with dental erosion, conditions like GERD, should limit their consumption of hot lemon water. For those that are having a dose in the morning, in order to reduce the acidic load, make sure to have a large glass to dilute the lemon juice and prevent acid wear
• Sports and energy drinks: Sports people have been noted to have particular problems with dental erosion which can be exacerbated by the combination of dehydration during exercise and rehydrating with acidic sports drinks such as Powerade and Gatorade.
• Sparkling Mineral Water: Ok here’s the surprising one. While bottled water or tap water generally has a pH of 6.9 to 7.5, when you add the bubbles to mineral water, the pH drops to between 4.9 and 5.5, making it slightly more acidic than beer and wine.

Natural Is Best

While we’re mostly aware of the dangers of soda and sports drinks, there are many bottled drinks available that will decrease the pH of your mouth and potentially cause tooth erosion.

Next time you’re at a restaurant, you may want to think about ordering plain water over sparkly bottled water to decrease the acid load in your mouth. Don’t forget to keep up with your regular checkups by your dentist to ensure you’re not at risk of acid damage.