Soft drinks and your teeth

[cph]

Remember that experiment when someone left a tooth in a glass of Coke?

Well....
http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/88/100020.htm?GT1=3479

"Soft drinks, especially light-colored drinks, and canned iced tea appear to "aggressively" harm teeth, new research shows.

The list includes many different sodas -- Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Canada Dry ginger ale -- and canned iced tea, specifically Arizona Iced Tea, all eroded tooth enamel in laboratory studies. In addition, both diet and regular versions had the same bad effect on tooth enamel, according to researcher J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, MSc, PhD, with the University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School.

Non-cola drinks, such as ginger ale, Mountain Dew, and Sprite were particularly harmful to tooth enamel. Brewed black tea, root beer, coffee, and water had a minimal effect, he writes in his report. It appears in the new issue of General Dentistry.
"

[mjb1124]

Don't tell me that Diet Sprite actually harms your teeth. I would've never thought so.

[Hacksaw]

Well, this old science fair project does have some problem compared with reality.

Good old saliva does a wonderful job in buffering the ph of your mouth, including the teeth. Now, if you were to shut off your saliva totally, & keep soda in you mouth constantly, then this model would make sense.

Remember there are also other acidic foods out there, like tomato products, vinegar, citrus juices, tannic acids in some teas, etc. are also acid enough to be of concern. I remember vividly one Dentist giving a slide show of what happened to one woman who followed someone's advice to chew on lemons to keep her teeth white. It actually erroded here teeth badly.

I'm also a little surprised that he let coffee off so easy in this report. While it may not be as damaging in this test as other beverages, the staining from it causes constant complaints to Dentists.

[FitzgeraldHead]

I may be wrong but Diet Coke, for instance has a pH of about 3.13, orange juice is around 3.5 and vinegar is more like 2.8. So, vinegar is a good deal more acidic than soft drinks.