Switching from soda to sports drinks.

I have many patients who have developed bad oral habits over the years.

One of these bad habits is drinking lots of soda pop.

Soda is terrible on your teeth.

I try to get people to stop drinking the stuff as much as I can.

Some folks have decided that they will kick the soda habit by going to something

much more healthy for them.

The stuff they decide to drink instead is sports drinks (gatorade, poweraid, red bull, etc.)

They see the commercials and see professional athletes drinking this stuff and think that it must be good for them.

Not so fast. The following is a study from the university of Iowa. and the results may shock you.

“The University of Iowa researchers covered extracted teeth with nail polish. They left bare two patches on each tooth, one on the enamel and one on the root. Then they dunked the teeth in test tubes filled with regular Coke, Diet Coke, Gatorade, Red Bull, or 100% apple juice. Every five hours, the researchers refreshed the beverages. After 25 hours, they examined the teeth with a microscope. All of the beverages eroded the bare spots on the teeth. But different beverages had significantly different effects. On the enamel, Gatorade was significantly more corrosive than Red Bull and Coke. Red Bull and Coke, in turn, were significantly more corrosive than Diet Coke and apple juice. On the roots of the teeth, Gatorade was more corrosive than Red Bull. Coke, apple juice, and Diet Coke followed in that order.”

So there you have it. People switching from soda pop to sports drinks thinking that they are helping their teeth are actually doing MORE damage to their teeth then before. Be careful what people tell you is better for you. It just may be worse.

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