All the sportspersons and athletes who live their lives by their sports drinks and energy drinks may just be sacrificing their oral health for sake
All the sportspersons and athletes who live their lives by their sports drinks and energy drinks may just be sacrificing their oral health for sake of athletic achievements. According to a study published in the January issue of Journal General Dentistry, most harm caused to the dental enamel is caused by bottled lemonade, sports drinks and energy drinks. At times the damage caused to the dental enamel by these drinks are as much as 11 times more than cola drinks.
Enamel of the teeth is the coating that protects the teeth from normal harmful bacteria and hence fights dental caries. Scientists had isolated the enamel from the teeth and kept them exposed in both coal and non-cola drinks for a period of 14 days, which was supposed to stimulate the exposure of our teeth to these drinks for over a period of 13 yrs.The results showed although the cola drinks may contain certain acids, the organic acids present in the energy and sports drinks are far more damaging to the dental enamel as they can breakdown calcium present in the teeth and cause tooth decay.
However, the study comes as a direct contradiction to the earlier research conducted on Ohio State University athletes, that showed no connection between sports drinks and dental caries. Published in the journal Caries Research in 2002, the earlier study had showed that there is no significant difference in dental eroding between athletes who consumed sports drinks and others who didn’t.
Links:
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/100/105874.htm http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43180 http://www.agd.org/media/2005/feb/sport_bev.asp
