Energy Drinks

A relatively new beverage, energy drinks are all the rage nowadays. You can see people, especially in Europe, where the soft drinks are more heavily controlled and regulated, walking down the street slurping cans of Monsters and Red Bulls early in the morning on their way to work. The main ingredients in these drinks are sugar, caffeine, and a little known stimulant called taurine. Taurine is indeed a synthetic stimulant, much like caffeine, that has some macabre origins. Taurine is derived from bull testicles, and the original formula was rife with gonad liquids of said animal, hence the name of the first energy drink: red bull.

Since then taurine has been synthesized and is being made in laboratories from 100% artificial sources.

But what about the dental health effects of energy drinks?

Effects On Your Teeth

Unsurprisingly, the high sugar content of energy drinks means that it is primarily bad for your teeth. But most energy drinks are carbonated, meaning that bacteria die from them, but carbonation is also bad for your teeth, as enamel generally does not like to be subjected to acids. Stimulants also dry out the mouth, but energy drinks do not seem to have that effect. While coffee and tea definitely dries up the mucus membranes in your mouth, it seems that energy drinks do not have this effect, and possibly because of the sugars. Sugars cause your salivary glands to start lubricating your oral cavity with saliva, and this may have something to do with why your mouth does not dehydrate, and this is a positive effect of energy drinks.

The combination of sugar and carbonic acid, if ingested regularly, will eventually, in the long run, have a negative, corroding effect on your teeth. They will also discolor your teeth, turning them grayer than usual.

Conclusions

The last thing that can happen, but is not a constant phenomenon, is that you may start to suffer from bruxism. This means that when the stimulants kick in, you may start to grind your teeth. This is surprisingly common,and if you spend lots of time under the effects of energy drinks, you may start to show signs of damage to your enamel similar to what those of us suffering from bruxism would experience.

All in all, I have to say that consuming energy drinks on a regular basis is bad for your teeth, but having them every once in awhile, as long as you remember to brush your teeth in a timely fashion afterwards (meaning not directly afterwards, but in like an hour after you have had it), will not cause damage to your teeth. As far as I know, taurine and caffeine do not drain any minerals or nutrients from your body, so your teeth are safe from internal damage when consuming energy drinks. It’s just the external wear and tear and acid damage you need to worry about.   

imahes: 1.