>People with little saliva and a habit of frequently consuming acidic beverages are at increased risk for enamel erosion. The basic recommendations are to drink water as the first choice and eat fresh fruits as an integral part of a healthy and balanced diet.
>Health professionals should motivate the population to change their behavior regarding the consumption of acidic drinks, and recommendations should be made at the policy level to discourage the consumption of sugary drinks. Interventions that would improve oral health and overall health are widely available.
Normal sodas are pretty acidic - coke has a pH of around 2.5
Soda water has a pH of 5-6.
Your saliva has a pH of around 6-7.
Water, of course, is at 7.
Remember we're dealing a log scale here, and that going from 2.5 to 5.5 isn't a 2x improvement - it's closer to a 1000x reduction in the amount of acid. If replacing soda with soda water is what gets them to stick to it, that's what they should do.
I switched from sparkling to plain water a few weeks ago (for other reasons).
I’m drinking significantly less than I was when drinking sparkling.
So again, the question now becomes is it better to be fully hydrated drinking “acidic” sparkling water, or is it better to only drink plain water and be dehydrated? (Rhetorical question)
>The increased amounts of calcium, phosphate, and fluoride in the drinks limited the severity of erosion by changing the solubility of the enamel [82]. The decline in enamel’s surface microhardness and mineral loss were both dramatically halted by the addition of CaGP to the carbonated drinks.
Most seltzer water has fluoride in it, and your tap water has fluoride in it (if you're making your own at home).
Also the methodology in this study was purely in vitro, not real world conditions. Notably, the lack of saliva.
>Under normal circumstances, human saliva forms a physical barrier, a film, and prevents direct contact between the tooth enamel surface and acidic beverages, thus protecting teeth from erosive attack by acids [45,84,85,86]. However, the erosion tests were carried out without saliva
Also, seems like the study was more on soft drinks in particular and not "other acidic drinks" which may include seltzer water.
>Soft drink consumption during meals was linked to mild to severe tooth damage [65]. No matter when they were consumed, other acidic meals and beverages were not linked to tooth damage [40].
Anyway, net is this: I'm not saying sparkling water carries absolutely no risk, but linking a study like this and cherry picking quotes to make it sound like sparkling water is going to destroy your teeth is misleading.
If drinking sparkling water helps you kick your soda habit, please definitely make the switch. It's so much better for you. The increased risk from drinking sparkling water compared to still water is not worth worrying about if sparkling water provides a quality of life increase for you.
Everything in healthcare is about moderated risk and counterbalancing it against lifestyle.
>People with little saliva and a habit of frequently consuming acidic beverages are at increased risk for enamel erosion. The basic recommendations are to drink water as the first choice and eat fresh fruits as an integral part of a healthy and balanced diet.
>Health professionals should motivate the population to change their behavior regarding the consumption of acidic drinks, and recommendations should be made at the policy level to discourage the consumption of sugary drinks. Interventions that would improve oral health and overall health are widely available.