Over the last few years, I have been seeing more tooth erosion in my patient’s teeth. Teeth erosion is the wearing away of tooth structure due to exposure to acidic or low pH solutions. A lot of the time we can trace the cause of the erosion to a certain habit like drinking a lot energy drinks at the gym or sipping on tea all day. But sometimes it is harder to figure out the culprit.
I have written about this topic in the past and wanted to give an update on yet another subtle cause of erosion: water. We expect water to be neutral (pH of 7). However, now we have all the sparkling water section of bottled waters. The carbonation process that makes it fizzy also lowers the pH. In addition, a recent study by C. Nguyen discussed the erosive potential of artificially flavored bottled water. The study found out that the artificial flavors in water (even in the absence of carbonation) also renders water more acidic with an average pH of 3. Therefore, carbonated and flavored bottled waters should not be considered an alternative to water.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nora Zaki
Adult dentist, Franklin office
