Dear Dr. Ellie,
I recently saw the news story that Good Morning America did on “Mountain Dew Mouth” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6863173&page=1 and then again tonight on the ABC World News with Charles Gibson. And I am mortified. Both I am my teenage son drink Mountain Dew all day long. My teeth have always been bad and are getting to the point where I am going to need serious dental work and my son had several cavities at his last check-up.
I had no idea that the Mountain Dew could be the root cause of this. Why does this happen and is there anything that I can do and still drink the soda? Or should I give it up all together?
KM in KY
Dear KM,
There has been a good amount of information about this in the news in the past week and that is good. I recently added a page to my site about “Mountain Dew Mouth” and the cause of tooth decay in people who drink soda.
It all comes down to mouth acidity. The soda, such as Mountain Dew, causes your mouth to become acidic, and this causes enamel decay and bacteria to grow which also deteriorates teeth. Our mouth’s saliva has a function of neutralizing the pH of our mouths, but if we continue to sip soda all day, our mouths never get a chance to repair the damage from these acidic drinks. (Note that everyone’s saliva is different and pregnancy and illness change a mouth’s pH).
In the case of the story mentioned on the morning and evening news programs, the people involved compound the problem by having poor diets and dental habits. I would suggest if you want to have healthy teeth, you should definitely cut back on the soda, but also try not to “sip” all day long. Instead, have your drink with your meal, take xylitol, like my Zellies Mints in between sodas and follow my Complete Mouth Care Program.
Get a better understanding of Mountain Dew Mouth and mouth acidity on my website.
And learn more about how the Complete Mouth Care System can remineralize your teeth.
If you have specific questions, feel free to email me at drellie@zellies.com.
Ellie Phillips, DDS
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