CAN COKE RESOLVE YOUR TEETH IN ONE NIGHT?
In 1950 Prof. Dr. Clive McCay of Cornell University in USA made warnings about Coca Cola causing decays in teeth and claiming a tooth kept 1 night in a glass of coke would completely resolve. This striking claim caught the attention of people and spread quickly.
Maybe, you have also heard that coke can resolve your teeth. Resolving effect of coke originates from 3 types of acid that are also present in many types of popular beverages: phosphoric, cytric and carbonic acid. For example, an orange juice contains more cytric and phosphoric acid than coke.
EXPERIMENT
Prof. McCay’s coke test was carried out ignoring the facts that there is protective saliva in human mouth and you can’t keep coke in your mouth for a whole day. Since we know that teeth cannot resolve completely even if that stay several McCay probably exaggerated a little.
Acidic beverages lower the pH inside the mouth and decrease saliva’s protectivity, soften the dentine layer and increse risk of decay through sugar. Latest research show that sport drinks have this negative impact more than coke.
Even if this post cheers up coke lovers, we still recommend you to keep your coke consumption under control because it softens the dentine layer.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Let’s share the following cautionary information for our patients who will not follow this recommendation: As you sip your cola, the enamel layer of your tooth softens as we explained above. Brushing teeth immediately can cause loss of material from the tooth surface. In other words, melting may occur on your tooth surface. Therefore, wait at least 30 minutes before brushing your teeth. Please do not draw the wrong conclusion from this information that it would be better to go to bed without brushing after coke consumption.
