The prospect of making water more exciting has been the aim of many people and companies for a very long time, but what do these exciting ventures hold in store for our teeth?
Most people drink water out of duty, a daily struggle to consume 2-2.5L to maintain good health. Water however is vital for your teeth. Water acts as a buffer solution for your teeth after acid attaches to the tooth surface. Because water has the same acidity level as your saliva it heals, restores and helps to maintain good oral health. Despite slam in the media, the fluoride in our water not only helps the development of adult teeth in our children but it also helps restore adult teeth.
When we eat food the acid level in our mouths change and because teeth are highly mineralised organs the acid can damage our teeth by removing theses minerals. The fluoride and other minerals in our water supply replace the minerals lost during food consumption and restore the pH levels in our mouths.
Today water comes in different flavours, it’s carbonated and we also add lemon and fruit to our water. Yes this does make water more exciting but don’t be fooled this is not as good for your teeth as plain old water.
Carbonated Water
Carbonated water is still better than any sugary soft drink for your teeth, however the carbonation process creates carbonic acid in the water
and this acid still changes the level of acidity in the mouth resulting in the undesirable effect of demineralising teeth.
Flavoured Water
Flavoured water is often no better than soft drinks. Flavoured water contains cane sugar, flavours and food acids all of these products having the same negative effects on ones teeth and oral environment.
Fruit in Water
It has been a modern craze to add fruit, such as lemons and limes to our water. Even though these exciting flavoured additions to plain old tap water look and and taste great, they have also been the cause of a lot of dental erosion. Although fruit is very health for us it isn’t the healthiest thing for our teeth.
Fruit is high in natural sugar and acid. Dentist don’t suggest stopping the consumption of fruit because of the general health benefits that fruit contains, however when placed in water and sipped on throughout the day the effect of this natural sugar and acid has the same demineralising effect on teeth as soft drink.
Yes water is a plain and boring but sometimes less is more and that is certainly the case when it comes to drinking water.
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