There's not a single office you can
go to now without finding one of these.
Yep, it's 'La Croix',
or 'La Croy', or... 'La Croicks'?
I don't know, whatever it's
called people seem to love this stuff.
I mean.
Yep, that's disgusting,
I do not like soda water.
But a recent article by the Washington
Post revealed that soda water,
like 'La Croix', is eroding your teeth.
Is that true 'La Croix'?
Let's get to the bottom of it.
- It's so good and so refreshing,
especially when it's cold.
Feels like it hydrates me more.
- I love the way it tastes.
It's refreshing.
Then sound when you open is fantastic.
- It got me off of drinking soda.
I did not want to drink soda pop anymore,
but I was still addicted.
'La Croix' gives me the same bubbly,
crisp refreshingness,
with none of the calories.
- This stuff tickles my tongue.
- There seems to be a consensus of
why people love to drink soda water like
'La Croix' or 'Perrier'.
It's crisp, it's refreshing, and
due to the fact that it's nutritionally
the same as water it's relatively guilt
free to drink.
But that's not really the truth.
Soda water, while it's not as sugary or
high in calories as 'Coca-Cola' or
'Sprite' still has carbonation,
also known as carbonic acid.
Any kind of food or
drinks that lowers the pH of your teeth is
going to eat away at your enamel.
Oh, don't believe me?
I guess we'll just have to ask a dentist.
Hey Dr. Green, how's it going?
- Tony, nice to meet you.
David. - Nice to meet you.
- A lot of people enjoy drinking
carbonated drinks because they
are refreshing.
They have a certain crispness to them that
pleases your tongue and
your palette and it's certainly a lot more
fun than drinking water.
What makes the carbonated drinks bad for
your teeth is that they have potential
ability to erode the enamel of your tooth.
So they have a certain amount of acidity
to them, and that acidity can actually
start to dissolve away the surface of your
tooth, which is enamel.
Teeth prefer to be in a pH
that's closer to being neutral,
that leaves them in sort of a healthier
place, and the body actually tries very
hard to keep your mouth closer to neutral,
and that's what saliva is for.
As soon as you get to a pH which is
below 5.5, it becomes acidic enough that
part of the surface enamel of your
tooth can actually start to dissolve.
For one thing, the carbonation that's in
these drinks creates a certain amount of
acidity in the water.
It actually creates
something called carbonic acid.
And then when you incorporate any sort
of fruit essences, or particularly fruit
derived acids, like citric acid, that can
also work along side with the carbonic
acid and then do further dissolving or
erosion of the enamel of the teeth.
The question of whether or
not it's really that big of a deal even
though some people have been drinking
these soda waters for a long time and
haven't had problems, it's all cumulative.
In the beginning,
we can lose a certain amount of enamel and
it's not that big of a deal.
But as we get older, we've lost some
already, and as we reduce the amount of
enamel that we have, we become more
susceptible to getting decay and
to getting sensitivity of the teeth.
So it's better to sort of
be cautious from the start.
But the truth is you really can't avoid
foods that have acidity.
We see them sort of in different parts of
our meals all day long.
Enjoy you food.
Try to be careful about not overindulging
in very acidic things in between meals.
And try to swish with water, and
drink a lot of water,
that definitely helps.
Make sure you floss and
brush before you go to sleep.
- So it seems that soda water isn't
the only thing that's acidic.
Like Dr. Geen said,
most of the stuff that we eat is acidic.
But as long as we drink water constantly
and take care of our teeth by brushing and
flossing we should be fine.
But if you do notice that your teeth are
getting a little sensitive, then it might
be a sign to lay off that fizzy track.
Just because it says water on the bottle
doesn't mean it's water.
Water doesn't erode your teeth.
Enamel doesn't regenerate.
- My gums are already receding, it's fine.
- It degrades my teeth?
Yikes! - What?
No, don't tell me that.
- What?
That's not going to stop me.
- Soda water is still way better than
regular soda, so if it's just your way of
curbing your bad soda habit, then do it.
It's a good alternative.
But just don't drink it every day.
It's not water.
Stick with water!
You can do it!
I believe in you.
Okay, bye.