Your Teeth-Rotting 3 p.m. Habit

by Jessica Girdwain May 14, 2012, 10:00 pm EDT

 

Your dentist wouldn't touch this, even if it did give him wings.

Wake up your smile by putting down the Red Bull: Energy drinks are worse for your teeth than either sports drinks or coffee.
Researchers recently analyzed 13 sports drinks and nine energy drinks. They immersed samples of human tooth enamel in the liquid for 15 minutes, followed by a soak in artificial human saliva for 2 hours.
After five days of testing, the scientists found that 3.1 percent of protective enamel eroded in the energy drink samples compared to 1.5 percent in the sport drink group. The results were published in General Dentistry.
Sports drinks are highly acidic, which can erode tooth enamel, notes lead study author Poonam Jain, M.P.H., of Southern Illinois University. (Same goes for soft drinks, she notes.)
The easy solution: Avoid energy drinks. (Instead of drinking empty calories, opt for these 5 Belly-Filling Foods.)  If you do knock one back, swish your mouth with tap water immediately after or chew a piece of gum. Both increase saliva production in mouth, which buffers the effects of acid, says Jain. And don’t brush your teeth for at least a half hour after consuming a sports or energy drink. The acid combined with the friction of brushing will further erode enamel.
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