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Speaker 1: Great Courses Plus dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to
Speaker 1: brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, it's
Speaker 1: me Christian Sager. So there's this urban myth that soda
Speaker 1: can dissolve a tooth overnight. The Internet has thoroughly busted this.
Speaker 1: But just because it's proven that hanging onto a mouthful
Speaker 1: of cola for upwards of twelve hours won't hollow out
Speaker 1: your jaw, that doesn't mean you should try it. Soft
Speaker 1: drinks can indeed damage your pearly whites. But how and
Speaker 1: how much? Well, let's talk teeth. Your teeth have four
Speaker 1: basic layers, the root, the pulp, the denton protecting the pulp,
Speaker 1: and the enamel tooth. Enamel is the hardest tissue the
Speaker 1: human body produces. It's made up of crystal fibers packed
Speaker 1: together into a smooth mineral casing, or as we call it,
Speaker 1: a crown. But unlike your bones, enamel is not a
Speaker 1: living tissue. Because it's not alive. That also means it
Speaker 1: can't repair itself. That means it takes damage from daily
Speaker 1: wear and tear, including what we eat and what we drink.
Speaker 1: There are two types of trouble. Drinks can cause all
Speaker 1: over erosion due to the acids they contain, and spot
Speaker 1: decay caused by the bacteria that grow on your teeth.
Speaker 1: Both come down to a pH imbalance on a scale
Speaker 1: from zero to xenomorph. The human mouth has a pretty
Speaker 1: neutral pH level, something around six point eight. The pH
Speaker 1: scale itself runs from zero to fourteen, with zero being
Speaker 1: the most acidic, fourteen being the most base or alkaline,
Speaker 1: and seven being neutral like pure water. Some of the
Speaker 1: bacteria in your mouth are sugar hungry, so when you
Speaker 1: consume sweet stuff like soda, they throw the bacterial equivalent
Speaker 1: of a house party. They'll link up into colonies on
Speaker 1: your teeth called a biofilm or plaque, and feast on
Speaker 1: the sugar and the lookscrete acids, which can weaken your
Speaker 1: enamel whenever they're ancred down, eventually causing cavities. But Christian,
Speaker 1: you might say, I only drink sugar free sodas well,
Speaker 1: that'll save you from cavities. But all sodas contain acids
Speaker 1: of their own. On the pH scale, soft drinks have
Speaker 1: been found to range from around four point oh to
Speaker 1: two point four. For comparison, battery acid is a one.
Speaker 1: Your saliva should bring your mouth back to normal within
Speaker 1: half an hour or so, but your enamel can be
Speaker 1: affected by anything from about a five point five or below.
Speaker 1: The erosion in decay caused by chronic soda consumption can
Speaker 1: be rampant, and yes, rampant is the official medical term.
Speaker 1: In one case study, soda abuse was found to do
Speaker 1: dental damage equivalent to meth or crack abuse. The only
Speaker 1: difference was the shade of discoloration in the patient's remaining teeth.
Speaker 1: Dentists recommend using straws and rinsing with water after drinking
Speaker 1: any acidic or sugar re stuff. They also stress rushing
Speaker 1: twice a day with fluoride or remineralizing products to help
Speaker 1: maintain your enamel. In fact, it can't heal itself from
Speaker 1: the inside the way your bones do, but the mineral
Speaker 1: structure can be buffeted from the outside. These are good
Speaker 1: habits even if you've never touched a soda in your life.
Speaker 1: After all, sodas aren't the only culprits in enamel erosion,
Speaker 1: in tooth decay, and your future relationship with dentures isn't
Speaker 1: the only thing at stake here. Research has linked oral
Speaker 1: health and whole body health. This means a disease that
Speaker 1: starts in the mouth may have a hand in heart disease,
Speaker 1: rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory infections, and even some cancers. Check out
Speaker 1: the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com.