On the heels of my story about dental erosion, a growing problem blamed on highly acidic foods and drinks eating away the protective enamel on teeth, comes a new wrinkle.
A study in a recent issue of the journal General Dentistry says that while acidic drinks like carbonated beverages and juices erode enamel, another chemical property of drinks also causes the problem. A drink’s “buffering capacity,” defined as the ability to neutralize acid, also eats away at teeth.
The punch line? So-called energy drinks, along with sports drinks, had the highest buffering capacities, making them highly capable of dental erosion.
Sports drinks had already been targeted because of their high acidity and low pH levels — although some industry-sponsored research suggested otherwise. But energy drinks hadn’t been on the list of low-pH products. The study points out that energy drinks have been growing in popularity over the past decade and could hit $10 billion in sales by 2010 if current trends continue.