The acidic and erosive potential of five sports drinks.

Sports drinks are becoming increasingly popular as we are all being encouraged to adopt a healthier lifestyle with regular exercise. However, many of these products are based on acidic fruits and may contribute to erosion. The aim of this study was to screen a number of these products for their potential to cause enamel erosion in vitro. The erosive potential of a number of readily available sports drinks was assessed in the laboratory by measuring their pH, neutralisable acidity and their ability to erode enamel. These were compared to a positive control, orange juice and a negative control, water. The pH of the sports drinks ranged from 3.16-3.70 with their neutralisable acidity ranging from 9.74-13.44 mls of 0.1M NaOH. The amount of enamel removed following 1-hour immersion in the sports drinks ranged from 1.18-5.36 microns. In comparison, the orange juice control had a pH of 3.68, a neutralisable acidity of 19.68 mls of 0.1 M NaOH and removed 3.24 microns of enamel. Many of the sports drinks tested were found to be erosive. This information will be of use to clinicians when counselling patients with tooth surface loss who use fruit based sports drinks regularly.