Family Dentist: The pH levels in Your Family’s Drinks and How It Can Affect Your Teeth

Your family dentist knows that the best way to fight diseases, decay, and oral health concerns is to educate you and your family about ways to keep your teeth healthy. Sometimes, this is a simple conversation and one we have had with a million families, including things like brushing regularly and coming in to see the family dentist at regular intervals. There are also other conversations that are important, so you can avoid or reduce habits that could be causing your teeth to decay prematurely. There is a great deal of conversation recently, led by the family dentist, about the levels of pH of food and drink. Drinks that contain a low level of pH are even more damaging than food because they tend to wash your teeth in a bath of damaging fluids. But before we get into the discussion about pH levels, it is important to step back for a second and examine a simple reality most people tend to forget.

Whenever you place any substance into your mouth, it is going to have a real and definite effect on the teeth. This is because oral bacteria feed off the food and drink you place into your mouth. Some foods will help by keeping the bacteria less fed while others make the bacteria extremely active so they secrete much larger quantities of acid and cause greater opportunities for decay. It becomes paramount to ensure the foods you are placing in your mouth are balanced, and if you do eat a great deal of food low in pH levels, then you know how to clean out your mouth to avoid the harmful effects of the bacterial acids generated. All of this is part of teaching you to care for your own teeth in an ongoing effort by your family dentist to educate patients about the value of a holistic dental strategy.

Chemistry sees all substances as either acidic or alkaline, which is where substances get their pH levels. Pure water, which is what your family dentist uses as a baseline, has a pH level of 7 and is the best thing you can drink. A regular coffee from Starbucks has a pH level of 4.85, which makes it considerably more acidic than water, but less damaging than Coca-Cola, which has a pH level of 2.5. Coke is closer in acid levels to battery acid (at a pH level of 0.00) than to water. For your teeth's enamel, this acidic wash of drinks works to effectively leach out important chemicals and minerals from the teeth. Once this demineralization occurs, the teeth start to get weak, thin and eventually give way to sensitivity or even decay. It is important to avoid the excessive contact acidic substances have with your teeth in order to prevent this kind of damage. As a family dentist, we recommend brushing your teeth roughly 30 minutes after consuming anything with a low pH level, so you will effectively remove any excessive acid formation.