Sports and Energy Drinks Responsible for Irreversible Damage to Teeth Though energy drinks found twice as likely to destroy enamel than sports drinks Featured in For the Media - News Releases, May 2012 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2012 |
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CHICAGO (May 1, 2012)—A recent study published in the May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry,
the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry,
found that an alarming increase in the consumption of sports and energy
drinks, especially among adolescents, is causing irreversible damage to
teeth—specifically, the high acidity levels in the drinks erode tooth enamel, the glossy outer layer of the tooth.
“Young
adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their
sports performance and energy levels and that they are ‘better’ for them
than soda,” says Poonam Jain, BDS, MS, MPH, lead author of the study.
“Most of these patients are shocked to learn that these drinks are
essentially bathing their teeth with acid.”
Researchers
examined the acidity levels in 13 sports drinks and nine energy drinks.
They found that the acidity levels can vary between brands of beverages
and flavors of the same brand. To test the effect of the acidity
levels, the researchers immersed samples of human tooth enamel in each
beverage for 15 minutes, followed by immersion in artificial saliva for
two hours. This cycle was repeated four times a day for five days, and
the samples were stored in fresh artificial saliva at all other times.
“This
type of testing simulates the same exposure that a large proportion of
American teens and young adults are subjecting their teeth to on a
regular basis when they drink one of these beverages every few hours,”
says Dr. Jain.
The
researchers found that damage to enamel was evident after only five
days of exposure to sports or energy drinks, although energy drinks
showed a significantly greater potential to damage teeth than sports
drinks. In fact, the authors found that energy drinks caused twice as
much damage to teeth as sports drinks.
With
a reported 30 to 50 percent of U.S. teens consuming energy drinks, and
as many as 62 percent consuming at least one sports drink per day, it is
important to educate parents and young adults about the downside of
these drinks. Damage caused to tooth enamel is irreversible, and without
the protection of enamel, teeth become overly sensitive, prone to
cavities, and more likely to decay.
“Teens
regularly come into my office with these types of symptoms, but they
don’t know why,” says AGD spokesperson Jennifer Bone, DDS, MAGD. “We
review their diet and snacking habits and then we discuss their
consumption of these beverages. They don’t realize that something as
seemingly harmless as a sports or energy drink can do a lot of damage to
their teeth.”
Dr.
Bone recommends that her patients minimize their intake of sports and
energy drinks. She also advises them to chew sugar-free gum or rinse the
mouth with water following consumption of the drinks. “Both tactics
increase saliva flow, which naturally helps to return the acidity levels
in the mouth to normal,” she says.
Also,
patients should wait at least an hour to brush their teeth after
consuming sports and energy drinks. Otherwise, says Dr. Bone, they will
be spreading acid onto the tooth surfaces, increasing the erosive
action.
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Monday, May 7, 2012
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