Sports Drinks and Tooth Decay

Sports drinks are a great way to replace electrolytes and water after a rigorous game or long practice.  They are marketed to athletes young and old as a great way to replenish lost fluids during any type of exercise.  The problem comes into play when you think about what these kinds of beverages can do to your teeth.  The first 4 ingredients on the label are water, sucrose syrup (fancy word for sugar), high fructose corn syrup (fancier word for sugar) and citric acid.  Simply put: sports drinks are acidic sugar water which happens to taste great!  Drinking sports drinks on a regular basis can cause irreversible damage to the enamel of your teeth.  Sports drinks contain additives along with organic acids that stimulate the breakdown of enamel.  These acids cause the pH level in the mouth to drop (creating greater concentration of acid on your teeth) which stimulates the production of bacteria in the mouth that causes dental cavities.  If you drink these beverages, it’s best to drink them quickly instead of sipping them continuously over a long period allowing the sugars and acids to remain on the teeth.  The American Dental Association has a great slogan:  “Sip all day, get tooth decay”.  This concept applies to all beverages that contain sugar especially soda and sports drinks.  Although you do not need to cut these beverages completely out of your diet, we do have the following recommendations. 

1) Try not to hold or swish sports drinks around the mouth as this habit prolongs the length of time that the teeth are bathed in sugar and acid.  2)  Drink your sports beverage as quickly as possible so that you do not keep subjecting the enamel to high levels of acid over a prolonged period of time.  3) Use a straw when possible as this minimizes exposure of the beverage to your teeth.  4) Drink a glass of fluoridated water after consuming a sports beverage in order to wash away the sugar and acid.    

-Authored by Awna Schweitzer, RDH and Robin Hogan, DDS