Will Carbonated Drinks Damage Your Teeth?

The simple answer is: carbonation alone does not affect your teeth.

However, just because carbonation doesn’t affect your teeth, doesn’t mean that all carbonated beverages are equally harmless.

Why do some people say carbonation ruins your teeth?

Pure water is completely neutral, or a 7 on the pH scale, and is great for your teeth. It helps you build saliva, which washes away sugar and other unwanted substances out of the gaps in your teeth, helping to prevent cavities. However, when you add carbonation to otherwise perfectly balanced water, it becomes slightly acidic.

Non-flavoured carbonated water sits around 5 – 6 on the pH scale, which is very slightly acidic. To give you a comparison, orange juice, which is known to be hard on teeth, has a pH rating of 3.3 – 4.2. With a nearly-neutral pH, researchers found non-flavoured sparkling water has very little erosive effect on teeth.  However, that changes when you start adding other ingredients into the mix.

So, before you crack that can of soda, let’s break down carbonated drinks into more useable categories to show you which ones you can drink worry-free, and which ones you want to avoid in general.

How different carbonated drinks affect your teeth

Carbonated drinks range from simple sparkling water to the rightly labelled health-disaster that is most sodas, to alcoholic drinks like beer or Champagne. Each of these will affect your teeth in a number of different ways.

Sparkling water

For those of you who love Perrier, San Pelligrino, or any of those other effervescent drinks, we’ve got good news: sparkling water has less impact on your teeth than a cup of orange juice. However, adding flavours, especially citric fruit, generally makes the drink more acidic, and harder on your teeth. However, mineral waters, like San Pelligrino and Perrier, are often slightly basic because of their added minerals. That means there’s no erosive effects on your teeth.

Sodas

Sodas are terrible for your teeth, whether they are of the regular or diet varieties. Not only do their pH ranges sit around 4.75 – 2.5 (which is very acidic), but soda drinks, in general, degrade your tooth enamel because of their high sugar-meets acidity content. For those who must have their pop, Root Beer is usually the least acidic, and thus easier on your teeth.

Alcoholic drinks

Beer has an acidity somewhere in the 4.3 range, which means it’s as acidic as orange juice. And though we may not think of it as sweet, there are a lot of carbs/sugars in beer, which is also hard on teeth.

Sparkling wine is more acidic than beer, with whites coming in at the worst with a pH at just above 3. Add in some carbonation and that pH level can easily dip below 3, making that light and airy bubbly seem a little more dark and twisty for your teeth.

How acidic drinks affect your mouth

Dentin, the material that makes up much of the interior of your tooth, starts to dissolve below 6.5, but the enamel covering it is much stronger, dissolving only below 5.5. The good news is, your saliva tends towards basic, with a pH range of 6.2 to 7.6. That means your saliva will often offset acidity in drinks and food. 

However, if you’re really worried about how your drink will affect the enamel of your teeth, try drinking with a reusable straw to bypass your teeth to roll over your tongue and down your throat. 

Finding the right balance for your mouth

Now that you understand how carbonated drinks affect your mouth, you can make an educated decision when you’re standing in front of your fridge. So, instead of having that second pop, maybe switch to an unflavoured sparkling water to keep enjoying bubbles without eating away at the enamel of your teeth.