Soft drinks are regularly consumed by a large number of the population – particularly a high proportion of adolescents! The choices you make about which soft drinks you choose for yourself and your children can have a detrimental impact on both your general and oral health. Plain, unflavoured bottled water or tap water is the healthiest choice for our bodies and our teeth.
Soft drinks have many potential health problems. The inherent acids and sugars have both acidogenic and cariogenic potential, resulting in dental caries and potential enamel erosion.
Drinking a lot of high-sugar soft drinks is highly associated with type 2 diabetes, obesity and weight gain.
Fizzy drinks contain large amounts of sugar and will, therefore, increase the risk of tooth decay. Both regular soft drinks and their diet alternatives contain acids that can erode the outer surface of the tooth.
When you drink fizzy drinks such as Coke, Sprite, Fanta or any energy drinks, the sugars in it interact with the bacteria in your mouth to form acid. This acid is what attacks your teeth and starts to form cavities and decay. Both regular fizzy drinks and ‘sugar-free’ soft drinks contain their own acids which both have their own way to attack your teeth. Sugar-free may be a slightly healthier version for you but it will still have similar effects on your teeth.
| DRINK | SUGAR CONTENT |
| Coca cola(500ml bottle) | 53 g (13 teaspoons) |
| Lucozade (500ml bottle) | 43.5g (11 teaspoons) |
| Red Bull Energy Drink(250ml can) | 27g (7 teaspoons) |
| Tropicana Original | 25g (6 teaspoons) |
What about diet and sugar-free carbonated drinks?
There’s increasing pressure within the soft drinks industry to create ‘healthier’ options in the form of ‘sugar free’ and ‘diet’ alternatives. These options are now slowly becoming more popular for being low and no calories.
However, before you grab yourself one of these ‘sugar-free’ alternatives, it’s important to bear in mind that though they help reduce obesity, diabetes and the risk of tooth decay compared to their ‘full fat’ sugar equivalents, they are still extremely acidic. Therefore, dental erosion is still a huge concern.
Think before you grab a soft drink!
Are fruit juices a good alternative?
Fruit juices are known for having beneficial effects on our general health with the Government recommending that a 150ml portion of juice can count as one of your five-a-day. However, like carbonated drinks, fruit juice contains acids and sugar which can be damaging to our teeth.
Therefore, we still need to consider some recommendations before grabbing the ‘healthy’ fruit juice.
Here’s a good way to get the benefits of fruit juice while minimising the damage to our teeth: drink one portion of 150ml fruit juice a day with breakfast and brush your teeth either before or around 45-60 minutes after breakfast.
Here’s some tips to consider when reaching for bottled water:
- Avoid flavoured waters: these usually contain sugars – read the packaging!
- Drink plain water daily: current recommendations are we should get around 2L of water a day.
- Consider drinking water from the tap
- Plain water should be the main drink we reach for between meals and at bedtime or during the night.
How to Limit the Damage of Soft Drinks
As dental professionals we are not saying take all the joys out of your life altogether, we recommend everything in moderation. Here are a few things you can do to reduce the damage.
- Reduce the consumption of fizzy/carbonated and fruit juices.
- Use a straw to drink the acidic drinks so that it has minimal or no contact with your teeth, the damaging effect of these drinks is increased the longer these fluids are in contact with the teeth so straw will help to reduce that and avoid swilling the drink in your mouth.
- Try to drink any fizzy/acidic drinks or fruit juices at mealtimes only.
- Rinse your mouth out with water after finishing the fizzy drink, this will help to neutralise the acids and sugars from the drink.
- Wait before you brush. Do not brush your teeth immediately after drinking something with high amounts of sugar or caffeine. You may think this will help reduce the damage to your teeth but at this stage your teeth are vulnerable and brushing them straight away will further damage your enamel. It is best to wait 45 to 60 minutes to brush your teeth.
- Avoid the acidic drinks at bedtime or during the night, stick to plain still water at these times and your teeth will thank you for it!
- Attend routinely to see your dentist to pick up any early signs of erosion.
