Root Beer Safest Softdrink for Teeth

23/03/07 Root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, new research suggests, but many other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid.

Prolonged exposure to soft drinks can lead to significant enamel loss, even though many people consider soft drinks to be harmless or just worry about their sugar content and the potential for putting on pounds, the study says.

The erosive potential of colas is 10 times that of fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking, a study last year showed. The latest research, published in Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) journal General Dentistry, reports that drinking any type of soft drink hurts teeth due to the citric acid and/or phosphoric acid in the beverages.

Non-colas are less acidic than colas overall, the study found, but they erode the teeth more effectively than colas.

"This study simply doesn’t mirror reality," said American Beverage Association spokesperson Tracey Halliday. "The findings cannot be applied to real life situations where people's eating and drinking behaviors are very different and there are many factors at work."

5 percent weight loss

The study measured the acidity, or pH, of 20 commercial soft drinks, including Coke, Pepsi, 7 Up and their diet versions, immediately after cans were opened. Then slices of enamel from freshly extracted teeth were weighed before and after being immersed in the soft drinks for 48 hours.

The result was that the teeth immersed in Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, Squirt, Surge, 7 Up and Diet 7 Up lost more than 5 percent of their weight, according to the report by Poonam Jain of the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine and her colleagues. (Other sodas brought about losses in the enamel weight in the range of 1.6 percent to 5 percent).

AGD spokesman Kenton Ross said that RC Cola was found to be the most acidic soft drink studied, with a pH of 2.387 (the pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 for most liquids, with 0 being the most acidic and 14 being the least acidic—or most alkaline). Cherry Coke was found to be the next most acidic (pH of 2.522), and Coke was the third most acidic soda tested (pH of 2.525).

Battery acid has a pH of 1.0. Pure water at room temperature has a pH of 7.0.

The results show that a soda's acidity is not the whole story when it comes to tooth erosion. The type of acid in the soda, level of soda and calcium content are also factors. Citric acid is the most erosive acid found in soft drinks and is the predominant acid in non-cola drinks.

"The bottom line is that the acidity in all soft drinks is enough to damage your teeth and should be avoided," Ross said in a prepared statement.

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