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  • Acids in pop dissolve teeth

    No real suprise given you can remove light coats of rust with Coca Cola

    FYI: gastric acid runs 1.5 - 2.0

    Contrary to the story's implication battery acid is 0.5, much more acidic than pop.

    Story....



    Acids in Popular Sodas Erode Tooth Enamel

    Root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, new research suggests, but many other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid.

    Prolonged exposure to soft drinks can lead to significant enamel loss, even though many people consider soft drinks to be harmless or just worry about their sugar content and the potential for putting on pounds, the study says.

    The erosive potential of colas is 10 times that of fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking, a study last year showed. The latest research, published in Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) journal General Dentistry, reports that drinking any type of soft drink hurts teeth due to the citric acid and/or phosphoric acid in the beverages.

    Non-colas are less acidic than colas overall, the study found, but they erode the teeth more effectively than colas.

    "This study simply doesn’t mirror reality," said American Beverage Association spokesperson Tracey Halliday. "The findings cannot be applied to real life situations where people's eating and drinking behaviors are very different and there are many factors at work."
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    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 21 March 2007, 19:52.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    Once again, I insurge against, this time, dentists. It is IMPOSSIBLE to measure the pH to 3 decimal places. I can give a tech explanation if you like. pH is usually expressed to 1 decimal place, occasionally 2, althgough chemists know that the second place is an approximation.

    The most ridiculous is drinking water = pH 7.670. Such a statement invalidates the whole table by its stupidity. Drinking water can be anything from 5 to 8.5, depending on the source.

    It would have been better had the table contained some other foodstuffs as reference values. E.g., lemon juice has pH 2-3, vinegar 2-3.5.

    What is also not mentioned is the type of acid. Coca-cola, for example, contains phosphoric acid (monobasic) which is very aggressive towards tooth enamel while lemon juice contains citric acid which is a tribasic carboxylic acid with some peculiar properties as a chelate and is less aggressive to enamel, but may be more so to metal fillings. This, combined with the sugar, is probably more important than the pH value in terms of tooth decay.

    Note that I am not saying anything about the dangers of drinking soft drinks, only against the stupid table thought up by dentists (who probably know nothing about chemistry or pH measurement) in a heavy smoke-laden atmosphere.
    Brian (the devil incarnate)

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    • #3
      Mythbusters busted this one BTW. Cola did have a slight effect, but you'd have to walk around with cola in your mouth for extended periods for it to really do anything.

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      • #4
        yeah I've watched that one. they left a tooth in there for 48h (i think) and nothing really happened (according to them, not exactly a scientific experiment) except the color was terrible. it completely disfigured a bone-steak though...

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