Soda is now the most consumed beverage in the United States. The average American consumes over 40 gallons of soda per year. This staggering amount of soda intake has obvious health consequences ranging from obesity to osteoporosis.

From a dental perspective, the deleterious effects of high soda intake can be devastating. The acidic nature of soda and many energy drinks can destroy enamel. The high sugar content also contributes to decay as it is fuel for the bacteria that cause decay. Diet sodas are also very acidic and for that reason can be detrimental to enamel as well. The advantage of diet soda is that it obviously does not contain the sugar of regular soda. Diet soda has been linked many additional health problems.

Sipping on soda or other sugary drinks all day long is most detrimental. If you do drink soda, rinse with water after drinking.

At Douglas Dental we frequently see patients that have severe decay problems, often as a result of very high soda consumption. Our goal is to work with the patient to eliminate the soda intake. Along with this we can treat the decay and keep the patient on regular recall and provide additional tools such as fluoride supplementation to help prevent further decay.