Bubbly booze can hurt teeth

You are looking forward to those summer afternoon sessions on the bubbles, but it might come at a painful cost. Dentists warn that sweet fizzy booze could be stripping your teeth of enamel and triggering decay.

The rotting teeth epidemic from soft drinks among kids is well known, but dentists say bubbly booze can be a serious problem for adults.

The problem is growing because Kiwis are rushing to buy celebration wines like prosecco, rose, cava, spumante, moscato, sparkling, methode and Champagne.

New Zealand Dental Association spokesman Rob Beaglehole says ‘‘dentists around the country are seeing the ravages of acidic drinks, whether these acidic drinks are the so-called diet cokes or whether they are alcoholic fizzy drinks - and that’s what they are’’.

Acid dissolves enamel on the teeth. The lower the pH of a drink, the more acid it is. Battery acid has a pH of 1 while pure water at room temperature has a pH of 7.

Beaglehole says tooth enamel begins to be dissolved by acid from about pH 5.5.

‘‘The pH of wines range between 2.5 and 4.5 and prosecco is about 3.2 which is very acidic.’’

Beaglehole says acidic sweet bubbly wines present multiple problems for drinkers and their teeth.

The acidity attack can come in several ways. There’s the acid from the grapes, but there can also be acid created by the carbonation to get the bubbles.

The sugar swirling around the teeth starts the decay problem very quickly because the acid has already weakened the teeth’s protective layer.

And finally the alcohol and style of drinking is a problem.

Alcohol encourages people to keep drinking and sparkling wines are often sipped slowly over a long time as part of a social occasion.

This gives the acid and sugar hours to go to work on the teeth.

However, there are some options to help when you can’t stand the thought of abandoning bubbles.

Beaglehole says a simple rinsing of the mouth with plain water will help balance things out.

Brushing teeth straight away is not recommended because the acids can soften the teeth enamel and it needs time to harden up again. So rinse with water first, then brush later.

Tony Smith, professor of oral biology at The University of Birmingham, told The Independent that it can take 20 minutes for the tooth surface to get back to normal pH after an acidic drink and he advises a wait of up to an hour before brushing teeth.

Many people drink water along with wine for other reasons, and protecting teeth is another good reason to do so.

The other tip is to eat some cheese (in case you weren’t already).

Researchers at the Academy of General Dentistry in the United States found eating cheese (especially cheddar) makes the mouth more alkaline and neutralises acid by stimulating saliva.

The phosphorus and calcium in cheese prevent the pH levels in the mouth from decreasing and help create a protective film around teeth. Plus lactose is the least likely sugar to cause cavities.