A friend of mine just visited the dentist, and was told that she had something like 17 new cavities and would need 12 teeth pulled with as many root canals and implants. Needless to say, she was rather shocked at this, as just a few years ago she had pretty good teeth. When she asked the dentist why, he asked her if she drank a lot of Diet Coke. She does. He said something about the phosphorus causes massive tooth decay.
Question1: Is it possible for Diet Coke to cause so mach damage in such a short time?
Question2: Would any other diet sodas do the same thing? What about non-diet?
Yes and yes. And she’s been drinking Diet Coke (or Pepsi) for years. It seems unlikely that all this damage would happen at once. But then why would the dentist say such a thing?
It seems more likely that her hysterectomy, with all its attendant hormonal changes and heavy drugs, would be the culprit.
I drink plenty of Diet Coke, and while I haven’t had a formal dental checkup recently, my teeth haven’t been bothering me.
Nonetheless, some people’s teeth may be, due to genetics, more susceptible to rot than others. Just as an example, my oldest son went to sleep with a bottle until he was three, with no adverse effects on his teeth. Our second son, on the other hand, had his tope two teeth rotted away before age two, and the dentist said it was due to the bottle. Even though my eldest wasn’t affected that way.
Is it possible she’s begun to have trouble with dry mouth?
I had zero cavities, even my baby teeth, up until I was 19. Then, due to a combination of the antidepressants I was prescribed plus the industrial-strength allergy medicine I’m on, I developed chronic dry mouth. Suddenly a perfect set of teeth began to develop a lot of cavities, no matter what I ate, drank, or how many times I brushed my teeth. I think I have around 15 or 16 fillings, all from cavities developed between ages 19-25. I use a spray to help stimulate saliva flow, but that only helps for about 1/2 an hour. Drinking water does nothing. As soon as I swallow it my tongue feels like a dry sock again.
Here’s a site Google gave me. To summarize, phosphorus can inhibit calcium absorption, but there’s not enough phosphorus in Diet Coke that you should really worry about it.
Not that she’s ever complained about. But she’s on a rainbow of meds, and other than Diet Coke and coffee, she doesn’t drink much of anything. It’s possible she’s often dehydrated.
I would second the possible role of anti-depressants (if you mean that she’s on one). She may not be dehyrdrated, per se, but anti-depressants interfere with saliva production, and less saliva can lead to more cavities.
(Word from my dentist. Which I would say is true. I had perfect teeth - no cavities ever, at all - until I was 25. Started the meds, and now I’m Filling Woo-man!)
I don’t think so. Psychotropic, yes, but not anti-depressants. I’m still viewing the hysterectomy as a possible culprit. The coincidental timing can’t be ignored.
Two of my aunts are dental hygienists, and both of them agree that diet soda causes tooth decay because of its acidity. Both said that patients will come in with shocking numbers of cavities from it, and it’s because the acidity erodes the enamel and since there’s no sugar, people believe it’s perfectly fine for their teeth.
They also said that the worst are the patients who drink a soda for hours at a time, taking occasional sips, because essentially the teeth are bathed in acid all day.
For me, it was Cherry Coke…
My teeth always hurt, and I couldn’t figure out why. I hadn’t been to a dentist in a while - and he said there was nearly no enamel left on the inside of my mouth. One day, I’ll need the kind of reconstruction your friend is facing. But I could arrest the erosion by not drinking coke any more.
I stopped. (it was hard, there were headaches. I drank a lot of the stuff) and my teeth stopped hurting (I’d never made the connection before). Since then, the old problems remain, but they’re not getting worse. They’ll hurt again, whenever I drink something with phosphoric or a lot of tannic acid, and don’t follow it up with something acid neutralizing.
I would think that the OP’s friend possibly has dry mouth and that is why her saliva is not washing away the acid from the diet soda but for most people the acid in diet soda is NOT a problem according to my dentist.
From this page. Warning! Horrible pictures of decayed teeth. Not for sensitive people.
It could be particularly bad in patients who have dry mouths. But like I said, they specifically admonished me not to spend hours drinking a Coke; apparently some folks drink small sips of it continuously enough that it’s simply sitting on their teeth for hours at a time.
