These days it seems that everyone needs something to suck on. Our children wander with a sippy cup or pacifier in mouth while their parents always have a latte or diet coke in hand. Yes, sucking and chewing does increase endorphins, perhaps as effectively as Prozac, but there are many down sides to the constant flow of chemicals on our teeth and into our bodies.
Many people are afraid the dentist will find cavities but now dental erosion is one of the most common chronic dental diseases in children and prevalent in many adults. The acidic chemicals in juices and pop can permanently dissolve tooth enamel. Most parents haven’t even heard of dental erosion.
What is dental erosion?
Dental erosion is the irreversible loss of tooth surface by chemicals as opposed to bacteria that we think about with cavities. It is estimated that up to half of all children have dental erosion. You can see changes in tooth color from transparent to yellow and eventually cracks in the teeth. You may also become more sensitive to hot or cold beverages.
What causes dental erosion?
The most common cause is drinking acidic beverages. This includes fruit juices and soda pop (even sugar free), sports drinks as well as wine.
Gastric reflux is very common in adults and children and the acid from your stomach can also cause tooth erosion. Other conditions causing erosion are chlorine in swimming pools if your kids are year round swimmers as well as from persistent vomiting that you would see in bulimics.
What can we do about dental erosion?
Many parents give their children juice or juice drinks instead of water or milk. There is the illusion that it is healthy because it may contain real juice but the fact of the matter is these are all forms of sugar and are very acidic.
Children and adults consume too many of their calories from drinks. It is estimated that 1/3 of the daily calories are coming from drinks which causes tooth erosion as well as the epidemic of obesity. The average Americans drinks almost 60 cans of pop a year. There are 10 teaspoons of sugar in one can that amounts to 32 pounds of sugar in a year. Kids click here for more dangers of drinking liquid sugar
Our Sippy Cup Society makes it worse, as it’s not just the amount consumed, but how much time the liquid is on the teeth. Eliminate juice, pop and sports drinks and replace with milk or water.
I often hear, but my child doesn’t like milk. That may be true, but think about what those parents may have trained their child to like. If you offer sweet tasting juices then why would they like milk? Retrain the taste buds so milk and water is more palatable and save juice for a treat.
What about reduced sugar or sugar free drinks?
Reduced sugar can still have lots of natural sugar in it. The acid does not have to be from sugar. Phosphoric acid is found in most dark colored pop, Diet or otherwise, which is a major culprit in acidic erosion.
What can you do if you do have an acidic food or beverage?
1) Limit the time. Use a straw and don’t swish it in your mouth.
2) Reverse the acid. Milk or cheese is alkaline and will reverse the acidity when used after an acidic beverage. Eating Tums or antacids is also a way to neutralize the acid in the mouth.
3) Increase salivia. Use sugar free gum or candy which will increase saliva to resist the acid and prevent demineralization.
4) Don’t brush?! Contrary to what you might think, brushing right after consuming acid might make it worse. The acid weakens the tooth enamel for about a half an hour and scrubbing too hard with a hard toothbrush can make the erosion worse. Use a soft toothbrush with a fluoride toothpaste well after you have finished the acidic beverage.
5) Use protection. Fluoride treatments at the dentist and at home will help fight the acid as well as reharden the tooth surface. Sensodyne ProNamel for Children, is the first pediatric toothpaste designed to help re-harden children’s tooth enamel.