There may be many of you out there that wonder “what drinks are OK for my teeth?” “Are diet soft drinks better for me than regular soft drinks?” If sugar is bad for your teeth, then if a drink has less or no sugar then it should be better for my teeth, right? Well, even without the sugar a diet soft drink has acid in it, which can lower the pH (a scale of how acidic or basic a liquid is) in your mouth.
In the video below I describe the pH scale and then test a lot of different liquids (some for drinking, some not just for fun/comparison) to see where they fell.
There’s a a lot of other factors beyond the scope of this video that impact if something is good or bad for your teeth, including if it contains sugar and/or other carbohydrates, which bacteria eat and then put off lactic acid, which can lower oral pH. This video focuses on the pH of various liquids, which if they are below 5.5 can pull minerals out of your teeth, weakening them and stating the process of dental decay (how cavities form). This has been shown in published literature, but I thought it would be interesting to do it myself and show the results.
Click here to my read a blog post about how some foods can help protect your teeth from cavities.
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