One of the most consumed substances in the United States of America is soda. Statistics show that 50 to 80 percent of adolescents and nearly half of Americans of all ages drink at least one soda a day. We believe that this number would drop drastically if these people only knew how badly soda affected their teeth. Soda can actually rot your teeth to the point where they will need to be removed and replaced with dental implants. Today, Dr. Craig S. Donn is blogging from Cherry Hill and Camden County, NJ to talk about how soda affects your teeth and what can be done about it.
Give Up Soda for the Sake of Your Teeth
One of the reasons why soda is so bad for your teeth is because a lot of sugar goes into it. Every time you drink a soda, this sugar is making direct contact with your teeth, sticking to them and not letting go. What makes sugar dangerous is the fact that it attracts bacteria to your teeth. This bacteria uses the sugar on your teeth to create acids, that will proceed to eat away at your teeth. This is called “tooth decay”, and some symptoms of it include chronic bad breath, off color spots on your teeth, and toothaches.
Another reason why soda is so bad for your teeth is because acid is used to carbonate it. Just like the acid produced by bacteria on your teeth, the carbonic acid used to carbonate soda also affects your teeth, eating away at your enamel and opening your teeth to an even worse oral condition. In fact, every time you drink soda, you are exposing your teeth to a 20 to 30 minute long “acid attack”. Enough of these can rot your teeth to the point where they will need to be removed.
If you are unwilling to give up soda, there are some techniques you can use to lessen the amount of damage it can do to your teeth. One of the ways you can protect your teeth is by drinking your soda with a straw, as doing so can prevent your teeth from getting a direct splash of the stuff. We also recommend that you drink your soda as quickly as possible in order to prevent your teeth from receiving a second acid attack on top of the first one. Lastly, you should consider drinking water directly after finishing a soda. By swishing some water around your teeth, you can wash away some of the sugar and acid on your teeth.
Call and Schedule a Consultation in Cherry Hill and Camden County, NJ
Looking at the effects that soda can have on your teeth, clearly one of the best decisions you could make for your teeth would be to completely give up soda. If this seems hard, even cutting back to 3 or 4 sodas a week can help prevent your teeth from rotting. However, if you do lose a tooth because of soda, we can actually replace that tooth with a dental implant. If you would like to learn more about the benefits that can come from restoring missing teeth with dental implants, we encourage you to contact us and schedule a no-obligation consultation with dental implant provider, Dr. Craig S. Donn, today.