Diet Soda and Dental Health: What You Need to Know

In today’s calorie-obsessed culture, it can be hard to hear the truth among all the other health-conscious noise. Lexington residents are frequently misinformed and misled about the health benefits of trends such as cleanses, sugar alternatives, diets, organic vs. nonorganic, and a myriad of other common topics. Today Dr. Brewer would like to clear up any misconceptions about dental health and diet soda. If you have any questions, please contact us at Brewer Family Dental.

Are Diet Sodas Healthy?

The short answer: no. Originally conceived as low-calorie alternatives to one of America’s first commercial legacies, diet sodas have become extremely popular amidst our country’s never-ending battle to lose weight. There’s only one small problem – diet sodas are only marginally better than regular soda. Compared to water, diet soda has zero nutritional value and contains many ingredients that are harmful outside of moderation.

Diet Soda & Dental Health

Diet soft drinks are not good for your teeth. Although they are not as detrimental to your smile as regular sodas, which usually have around 45g of sugar per serving, sugar is not the only problem when it comes to soda consumption. For example:

  • Phosphoric acid and citric acid (present in nearly every type of diet soda) eat away at your enamel, causing acid erosion. If you like to sip soda throughout the day, your teeth may be under soda-fueled attack for several hours per day.
  • Carbonated colas have been shown to cause bone loss. As part of the body’s attempt to neutralize the disruption to pH levels in the stomach, calcium and other essential minerals are leached from the bloodstream to maintain pH equilibrium.
  • Artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, such as aspartame and sucralose, may help stall tooth decay, but health advocates warn that they may be linked to headaches and weight gain.
  • Diet sodas often contain caffeine, which has diuretic and laxative properties. Combined with the fact that drinking diet soda often means you are drinking less water can lead to a chronic dehydration problem. Dehydration can lead to dry mouth, bad breath, and increased risk of gum disease and tooth decay.

Do You Have to Give up Diet Soda?

We know that lots of Lexington folks love their soda and Dr. Brewer won’t tell anyone what they can and can’t drink, but the Brewer Family Dental team also wants you to make informed decisions about your health. We want everyone in Lexington to have beautiful smiles and strong teeth, but it’s up to you to maintain healthy habits that keep your teeth safe between visits to our office. If you have any questions or would like to visit us for an evaluation, contact us today!

Sources

http://www.businessinsider.com/diet-coke-teeth-sugar-health-2011-10

http://www.livescience.com/7198-acids-popular-sodas-erode-tooth-enamel.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/diet-soda-teeth-similar-to-meth-photos_n_3348158.html

 

The post Diet Soda and Dental Health: What You Need to Know appeared first on Brewer Family Dental.



from Brewer Family Dental https://dentistinlexingtonky.com/blog/diet-soda-and-dental-health-what-you-need-to-know/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more