The Impact of Sports Drinks on Your Teeth
Sports drinks are, without a doubt, one of the most popular drinks in today’s era. With its overwhelming popularity and the ability to hydrate sports enthusiasts after a tough game, we often forget to look for the downside of sports drinks. They are commercially available in practically every store with other drinks and sodas.
But are they as good as we think they are?
What’s Inside a Sports Drink?
Sports drinks are made to provide all the electrolyte you lose while sweating after being involved in sports. The most common electrolytes found in all kind of sports drinks are:
- Sodium
- Bicarbonates
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Potassium
These electrolytes are vital for your child’s physical health. But as a downside, they can cause serious harm to their oral health.
The Benefits of Sports Drinks
Sports drinks contain a lot of water in them. In preventing dehydration, these drinks perform well. When your child plays sports, their body heats up to provide momentum and energy to endure the additional stress. Our body has a natural cooling down process, so we do not suffer from a heat injury. This is done by sweating.
When we sweat, we lose a lot of minerals and water through the process. Sports drinks can replenish our electrolyte and mineral needs.
These electrolytes work as a tool to keep our muscles and body working as optimally as possible. That way, your child does not face any sort of cramps, muscle fatigue, or nerve damage.
The Downside of Sports Drinks
- Sports drinks contain a lot of processed sugar in them. When there is sugar, there will be bacteria if left on your child’s teeth. If these bacteria are not cleaned properly, they will slowly build up cavities.
- Another crucial point when consuming sports drinks is its PH level. Most of the commercially available sports drinks are highly acidic. Extensive research has shown that acidic beverages tend to damage your enamel and make your teeth weak and prone to breaking.
- Consuming Sports drinks can make your teeth highly sensitive to the change in temperature, touch, or pressure. As a result, toothaches are a very common issue for kids who regularly consume sports drinks.
- Consuming sports drinks regularly also causes obesity in young people.
But there is no need to worry as some of the best Pediatric Dentist in Coral Gables are happy to provide detailed guidance on safely consuming sports drinks.
The first tip is to consume your sports drinks slowly, so your saliva can neutralize the PH level of the drinks.
Our children dentists in Coral Gables also instruct your child to rinse their teeth after having a sports drink. To even more cautious, using a straw is always a great idea.
You can also consume various fruits like watermelon, coconut water to get your electrolytes without additional risk to your oral health.
For further questions on the effects of sports drinks on your child’s oral health, contact Petit smiles. Our expert Children dentist in Coral Gables will be glad to assist you.