"Manly" Drinks & Your Dental Health - Slurpees

Free Slurpee day isn't until next month (July 11th -- 7-11, get it?), but we hope that by posting about it a little early, we might convince you to skip out on the free treat -- and every other Slurpee you might want to down this summer.

The dangers of a Slurpee? "All of the above." Slurpees might not have the same levels of acidity as a Coke (unless, of course, you're drinking a cola flavored Slurpee, which are basically made by using the same syrup that's mixed with carbonated water to make Coke, and mixing it with icy slush instead), but none of them get much above a pH of 4.5 -- easily enough to do some damage to your teeth, especially sipped slowly over a long period of time, which you basically have to do with a Slurpee unless you're mystically immune to brain freeze.

Of course, that slow-drink goodness along with the massive quantities of sugar in a Slurpee makes them even worse than iced tea for developing a good colony of Streptococcus Mutans all along your gum lines. But Slurpees don't stop there.

They may not be contributing alcohol to your oral cavity the way that drinking a beer does, but Slurpees are dropping off a huge quantity of artificial concoctions in your mouth, many of which have a variety of unknown side-effects. The flavors are artificial, the colors are artificial, the sodium benzoate they use as a preservative is a known carcinogen when mixed with citric acid (which basically all of the fruit-based flavors have in abundance), and even the bark extract they use to give the drinks a particular 'mouth feel' can leech calcium out of your body and cause kidney stones.

None of that might be directly related to your oral health, but in this case, we think it's wise to take advice from a cartoon character. As Candace of Phineas and Ferb fame once said, "Crushed ice covered in blue carbs? Lame!"

"Manly" Drinks & Your Dental Health - Iced Tea

Tea has so many health benefits that it's rare you'll find anyone disrespecting the Asian brewed drink -- but then Americans took something that's basically amazing and decided that we need to infuse it with lemons and massive quantities of sugar, make it ice-cold, and drink it that way rather than with the typical Asian respect. To be honest, much of what we refer to as 'iced tea' -- especially anything you make by mixing a powder into water -- has basically nothing to do with actual tea. It's a flavoring, and it's usually mostly artificial.

The problem with iced tea isn't limited to its extra acid from the lemon and how all that added sugar promotes the growth of Streptococcus Mutans (the bacteria that causes plaque, tartar, and gingivitis) in your mouth. It's also in how we drink it. Like all bacteria, Streptococcus Mutans has a limit to how fast it can multiply in your mouth -- and it's also limited by its supply of fuel.

Because the tradition with iced tea is to lean back on the porch or around the picnic table while you watch your son's Little League team whup its competitors, you're essentially creating a worst-case scenario in your mouth. You feed those bacteria a few sips of sugar every minute or two for an hour, giving them all of the time and fuel they need to make a huge, military-style advance against your gum line.

Now, if you make your tea by actually making real tea (Green is best unless you're strictly avoiding caffeine) and then adding ice and a small amount of added sugar, you can totally enjoy that knowing you're doing right by your mouth. But instant, prepackaged, or other iced "teas" aren't going to leave your mouth feeling its best.

"Manly" Drinks & Your Dental Health - Beer

Beer is one of those things like red wine -- it's great for you in moderation, but bad in large amounts. Beer may not have the heart-protecting Resveratrol that makes red wine so popular, but it does have something that few other foods have in great quantities; dietary silicon. Yes, the human body uses silicon to help grow and firm up your bones.

If you're a menopausal woman worried about osteoporosis, for example, drinking a less-processed beer like ale (as opposed to a lager) every day can do huge amounts to keep your bones strong. Beer also has a surprising amount of bioavailable calcium, though nothing like a glass of fresh milk.

On the other hand, for your oral health, beer isn't the best thing to finish a meal with. Beer is acidic, much like cola, and has similar -- if weaker -- effects. To put a technical side on it, acids start demineralizing your tooth enamel at a pH of about 5.5. Coke comes in at a very acidic 2.5. Depending on the darkness of the malt, beer can check in around 5.4 for a weak brew like Budweiser all the way down to 3.2 for a true sour like Rodenbach Grand Cru.

Beer, however, compounds the acidity problem by adding alcohol and sugars to the mix. If you think about it, beer is created by bacteria that consume the barley and hops, fermenting it and turning it into alcohol. Of course, then, it's a great environment for bacteria to grow in, especially once it gets warm in the mouth. Now, not much beer remains in the mouth for hours at a time, but on the molecular level, if it's the last thing you eat or drink before you start working or get otherwise distracted, the alcohol and sugar that's left behind will promote the growth of 'bad' oral bacteria quite readily.

"Manly" Drinks & Your Dental Health - Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coke is perhaps the worst possible thing that you can do to your teeth -- shy of getting into a fight with a motorcycle gang -- and it's one of those rare occasions where brushing your teeth afterwards does more harm than good. The reason why is right there in the ingredients label; phosphoric acid. That sounds like an industrial chemical instead of a food ingredient, and the fact of the matter is that it is indeed an industrial chemical.

When you drink phosphoric acid, a lot of things happen. Things deep in your intestines and in your bones and all over your body; my nutritionist tells me that a can of cola is essentially an anti-multivitamin. It actually causes your body to urinate out a whole pile of vitamins and minerals that it should otherwise have kept and used. That lack of micronutrients really does affect the health of your teeth in the long run -- but it's nothing compared to the short-term impact.

The short-term impact is that the phosphoric acid severely weakens your enamel, especially if you keep the drink in your mouth for any considerable period of time. That's why brushing your teeth after you drink Coke is a bad idea. Even a medium-hard toothbrush will literally scrub the weakened enamel away, and leave you in dire need of Dr. Johnson.

Now, we do have to put a bit of a lid on the hysteria, because we've done the research; cola will not, in fact, dissolve a tooth overnight. It takes a few weeks, and fresh-squeezed orange juice will actually do the job faster. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily safe to drink regularly if you want to avoid a trip to our office.

If you must drink a sugary, manly, bubbly drink this summer, we encourage you to check the label. If it lists any kind of acid that isn't citric, you should probably switch drinks. According to one study, root beer is generally best for your teeth if you must have a soft drink.

Just One of Many Things Men Can Learn From Women: Oral Health

We've known for years that women outlive men — and we've known for years that good oral health translates rather directly into good overall health, including a longer life. What we've found out relatively recently is that those two facts might actually be related.

A study published in the April 2011 Journal of Periodontology examined the oral health habits of men vs. women, and discovered that one of the best ways to improve your oral health habits is to have a second X chromosome. On average:

• Men brush their teeth 1.9 times per day — women: 2.5
• Men lose 5.4 teeth by age 72 — women: 3.2
• 53.1% of men said they have concerns about visiting the dentist — women: 41.1%
• 57.6% of men said they only went to the dentist when they had a toothache — women: 46.9%
• 61.2% of men said they "brush each tooth carefully" — women: 77.7%

The list of statistics goes on and on, but the implicit truth is clear; women pay more attention to their oral health than men. While no one is saying that the extra attention they give their oral health leads directly to women's longer lifespans, it certainly has merit as a contributing factor.

Among other things, that's because oral and throat cancer (caused by gum disease) is significantly more common in men than in women. Again, there's no evidence that the difference in cancer rates is directly related to the lack of attention the average man pays to his oral health, but it's a fairly easy conclusion to draw.

Some experts have argued that the extra care women take with their teeth is largely undone by the effects that progesterone has on increasing one's vulnerability to gum disease. The ladies at Dr. Johnson's office, on the other hand, think it's an opportunity for the men in our lives — one of many ways that, if they were just a little more like us, they might be a bit better off.