If you are trying to avoid tooth decay, going with a sugar-free drink can easily improve your odds. However, too many people find themselves drinking diet soda to avoid the sugar. This unfortunate because diet soda is still not the best option for maintaining healthy teeth. Diet soda may not have sugar, but it can still cause a lot of damage to your oral health.
Reason To Smile Dental focuses on providing kind, caring treatment to our patients. We make sure every visit is comfortable and every member of the family gets the best care possible. We also provide education on maintaining quality dental hygiene. So is diet soda better for your teeth than regular soda? Let us fill you in on the details.
The Difference Between Diet and Regular
Does diet soda really do less damage to your teeth than regular soda? The answer is, marginally. Diet soda is only slightly better for your teeth than regular soda, but that doesn’t mean it is healthy. There are small differences between the two drinks but nothing to make a significant difference in the damage they cause.
There is no sugar in diet soda, so by that regard, it is healthier than soda. The sugars in soda stick to teeth and make it easier for bacteria to get trapped and lead to tooth decay. Most diet drinks opt to use high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten the drink. Unfortunately, it still allows bacteria to stick to your teeth and cause decay.
Why Diet Soda Still Leads To Decay
The main reason diet soda, and sodas in general, are bad for your teeth is the high acidity of the drink. Foods or drinks that are highly acidic wear down your enamel, or protective layering over your teeth. When your enamel is weak, it is much easier for bacteria to reach your teeth and start eating away at the bone.
Both diet soda and regular soda are as acidic as stomach acid. Stomach acid is powerful and does the job of breaking down everything that enters your body. With enough time, diet soda is able to break down a lot with its acidity. Without your enamel, your teeth are at risk on a constant basis.
How to Lower the Risks of Tooth Decay
While it may be hard to completely eliminate diet soda from your diet, there are ways to combat the damage. Drinking diet soda through a straw will minimize the contact the drink makes with your teeth. Rinsing with water immediately after consumption will clean a lot of remnants of the drink. Wait 30 minutes before brushing because you risk scrubbing away your enamel.
Get A Long Lasting, Beautiful Smile!
Reason To Smile Dental offers a wide range of dental services for the entire family. Our passion for dentistry provides cutting-edge oral health care to patients who visit our clinic. We remove the financial anxiety and discomfort people often feel with dental visits. Contact us here today to schedule a visit or give us a call at (801) 719-5447!
