How Are Sugary Drinks Affecting My Teeth?

Keeping your teeth healthy requires a regular routine of brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and flossing at least once daily. However, in addition to these common practices, healthy teeth also require people to consider what they eat and drink and how those items can affect their teeth. The list of drinks and foods that aren’t good for teeth is a long one, and such items, including sugary drinks like soft drinks and fruit juices, can hinder a strong oral healthcare routine or even reverse it altogether.

While these drinks are go-to beverages for kids and adults alike, they’re not exactly the best option for anyone. Drinking too many can lead to a number of dental issues, including tooth decay, gum disease, cavities, and bad breath.

What Are They Doing to My Teeth?

It's well known that regularly consuming sugary beverages isn’t healthy for your teeth, but even occasional indulgences can negatively affect oral health. Whenever you consume one sugary drink, the sugar within it latches onto your teeth, and bacteria normally found in the mouth eat away at it. However, while these bacteria consume the sugar, they begin producing acid, and, sooner or later, the acid starts eating away at the teeth’s enamel. When this starts happening, the teeth start to get weaker and thinner. As your enamel grows weaker, the chances of cavities forming increases considerably—hence why sugary beverages are known to be one of the more common dietary triggers of decay in teeth.

How Do I Avoid All This Damage?

For regular consumers of sugary drinks, your best option for minimizing tooth decay is cutting down on them when possible or avoiding them entirely. You also might consider other, healthier options for quenching your thirst like milk or water. Another way of providing some sweetness through healthier means is natural fruit juices, but make sure you’re buying real fruit juice that has a juice content above 10 percent. To minimize even more sugar intake, you might consider cutting any fruit juices you buy with some seltzer water to prevent damage from acid on the teeth.

If you’re going about your day and decide to let yourself indulge a bit, just make sure you rinse your mouth with water afterward to flush it and wash away the remaining sugar. Also, as stated previously, make sure to use toothpaste and mouthwash that contain fluoride, as fluoride can help reduce tooth decay and strengthen enamel, even reversing some of the damage these sugary drinks can cause.

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