Stop sipping sugary drinks, it can be bad for your teeth!

Do you have the habit of sipping your drink? It’s okay when you drink water, but if you have the tendency to sip sugary drinks like soda, coffee and the like, you are in for trouble. The fact is that sipping such drinks can bring in problems for your teeth.

It is common practice that most of the people sip their drink, and take a fair amount of time finishing a cup.  It has been found by researchers that acid could be the prime reason in a beverage that has the potential ability to ruin your teeth.

That means that it is now time to think deeper about preserving your oral health. A report quoting Dante Devoti, DMD, assistant professor of dental medicine at Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine, says that tooth enamel, which is the hardest mineralized substance in a human body, could get demineralised when it is subjected to prolonged exposure to acidic liquids.

Time to stop sipping soda

Such acidic content in your drink could possibly affect your teeth to an extent that they could even face erosion and lead to cavities. It would be better to drink a cup of coffee, tea, juice, or any other drink other than flat water in a single sitting. This practice could help in keeping your teeth enamel from eroding.

The researcher has been quoted saying that the balance of acid and base inside should be as neutral as possible so as to keep oral health intact. In case the acidic content lingers inside the mouth, the damage could be caused. It is common knowledge that saliva is capable of washing away food particles and neutralizing oral pH. However, this process may not be instantaneous, it has been explained.

Saliva, to act, takes close to 60 minutes to elevate the pH out of the more harmful acidic range back towards the more protective neutral range, Devoti adds.

So, when a person has the habit of sipping the same cup through the day, saliva itself finds little time to raise oral pH and remineralise the teeth. This, over a period of time, makes it extremely damaging for the teeth enamel as low pH can put the teeth at greater risk of erosion.

Oral health is of prime importance

 Many studies have proved that oral health is at risk when sugar combined with acidic content is part of your drinking habit. Sodas are known to have a pH between 3 and 4, and when oral pH lowers more than 5.5, breaking down of the teeth begins, putting health at risk. 

In fact, sugary drinks are a dangerous option for health conscious people as they need to understand that sugar in sodas can also help form bacteria inside the mouth. These bacteria can feed on sugars and transform them it acid, thereby pulling down oral pH.