3 Reasons You Should Choose Water Over Pop

Everyone loves a good, refreshing sugary treat from time to time, but regularly consuming pop can cause tooth decay. While we all know that pop isn’t the smartest nutritional choice, it is easy to forget just how damaging it can be for your oral health as well. Here are three major ways soda can lead to enamel damage and why water is a better choice for maintaining good oral health.

Soda Damages Enamel

Whether you call it pop or soda, these carbonated refreshments are highly sugary. When combined with normal bacteria in the mouth, this sugar turns into a potent acid, which damages enamel! Diet soda is also highly acidic and has a similar effect, despite those non-sugar sweeteners. Every sip has lasting effects on your teeth for up to twenty minutes; be sure to take and swish a nice sip of a water to help wash that acid away from teeth.

Soda Causes Dehydration

These kinds of beverages, including regular and diet soda, sugary sports drinks and artificially sweetened fruit juices, have a surprising side effect! Both sugar and caffeine are known to cause dehydration, which in turn keeps you swinging away. While dehydration can be damaging for the whole body, it will typically affect oral health first. A mouth that does not produce enough saliva is a breeding ground for bacteria, potentially leading to gingivitis and cavities.

Water Helps Keeps Your Teeth Healthy

Switching out pop for water is not only a better choice for your waistline and overall health, it has important oral health benefits as well. It washes over the teeth, removing food particles and acids remaining from eating and drinking that might damage enamel. Regularly drinking water helps ensure you are properly hydrated, ensuring appropriate saliva production. Saliva is the best natural protection for your oral health as it contains proteins and minerals that counteract the effects of acids on the teeth.

Pop can be incredibly damaging to your tooth enamel due to its high acidity and swapping it out for water is always a smart choice! However, drinking soda through a straw, brushing and flossing properly and using fluoride toothpaste can help limit the effects of both sugar and acid from soda. Replacing soda with water can be a real boon to both oral and overall health! To get an assessment of whether your soda intake has had a detrimental effect on your oral health, schedule an exam today!