How Soft Drinks Affect Your Smile

Do you sip on a favorite soda with lunch or dinner every day? Maybe you have a few throughout the day to keep your energy up. You probably already know that soda has a lot of sugar and that it is not helpful in maintaining a healthy weight. But did you also know the damage soda does to your teeth?

The sugar content and acid in soda are both detrimental to your health and your smile. Let’s explore how soda affects your smile and how teeth whitening in Studio City can reverse the damage.

The statistics are staggering: the average person drinks more than 53 gallons of carbonated drinks annually. Young children (21 percent ages one to two and 56 percent of eight-year-olds) consume soft drinks every single day, says Livestrong.

• Sugar: When left on its own to sit in the mouth, sugar can do some big-time damage to those pearly whites. The extent of the damage is directly related to how long it comes into contact with the teeth. The bacteria in your mouth love all that sugar. They feed on it, eroding the enamel with the acids they create. With the average twelve-ounce soft drink containing at least 10 teaspoons of sugar, you are not only putting yourself at an increased risk of obesity and diabetes, you are also negatively impacting the health and color of your teeth.
• Acid: Carbonated beverages have phosphoric acid, citric acid or carbonic acid, which will also wear down your tooth enamel. This is where saliva serves a beneficial purpose. It washes away some of the acid, to be sure, but it doesn’t get everything. If you allow soda to sit on your teeth for a long time, such as for hours after a meal or overnight, the damage behind the scenes is devastating.

Tips

You don’t have to necessarily do away with soda completely, but it’s in the best interests of your teeth and health to cut down in order to minimize potential damage. Check out these tips:

• If you do drink soda on special occasions, brush afterwards.
• Drink through a straw to limit contact with your teeth.
• Don’t nurse your soda over long periods of time, which gives bacteria and acids more of an opportunity to act.
• If you must have soda, drink it with a meal. Then, if brushing right away is not an option, swish out your mouth with water to get some of the sugar out.

Contact Studio City Dental

If all that soda consumption is starting to show its effects and resulting in stained teeth, contact Studio City Dental Center to schedule your teeth whitening appointment at 818-762-2977. We utilize G.L.O. (Guided Light Optic) technology that incorporates the G.L.O. Brilliant Teeth Whitening Device, Whitening G-Vial Gels and Whitening Mouthpiece. With this system, you can whiten teeth by five shades in just five days!