Dental experts from New York University found that prolonged consumption of sports drinks encourages erosive tooth wear, in which acids eat away the tooth’s smooth hard enamel coating and trickle into the bonelike material underneath, causing the tooth to soften and weaken.
They cut calves’ teeth (because of their close resemblance to human’s) in half and immersed one half in a sports drink, the other half in water, then compared the two halves and discovered that the one exposed to the sports drink displayed a significant amount of erosion and softening. The experts evaluated the effects of a range of top-selling sports drinks.
And that’s not all. Brushing teeth immediately after consuming a sports drink can worsen the tooth erosion, because softened enamel is very susceptible to the abrasive properties of toothpaste.
[Source]
Chapter: Dental Care :: 6 July 2009
