How energy drinks could become more tooth-friendly

Spektrum der Wissenschaft

9.7.2025

Translation: machine translated

Energy drinks are becoming increasingly popular. But their ingredients can damage teeth. However, a remedy would be relatively simple.

Sugar and acid: both are bad for our teeth. And energy drinks contain plenty of both. However, adding small amounts of calcium compounds could make the drinks significantly more tooth-friendly. This is shown by a test carried out by Erik Jácome from the Brazilian Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte and his team, who exposed teeth to the fizzy drinks of a well-known energy drink manufacturer, among other things.

Many energy drinks contain calcium compounds.

Many energy drinks have pH values of less than 5. However, tooth enamel is already attacked and roughened at a pH value below 5.5. Jácome and Co. therefore placed donated, real teeth in samples that came from unadulterated energy drinks or were enriched with combinations of different minerals. For comparison, they also placed teeth in demineralised water and in an orange juice enriched with calcium. The pH value was measured in all liquids. The teeth remained immersed for two minutes, after which the scientists measured their hardness and checked how their surface had changed.

The untreated energy drink had a pH value of 3.96, while the one with calcium, phosphate and magnesium had a pH value of 5.27. At the same time, this mixture ensured that the teeth were best preserved. The tooth enamel was significantly smoother and harder than with the original effervescent solution. The addition of calcium malate, the salt of calcium and malic acid, did have a partially protective effect. Although this made the drink more acidic, the calcium it contained ensured a certain remineralisation of the tooth enamel, which also remained harder as a result. The calcium citrate malate used as the third supplement performed the worst - although the result was still better than in the pure energy drink.

However, it remained unclear after the study how much calcium had to be added in order to achieve a certain level of dental protection - and how this could affect the flavour. Follow-up studies should clarify this. Experts also recommend not to sip energy drinks - or other sweet and sour drinks such as lemonades or gin and tonic - all day long, but to drink them with meals or limit them to just a few sips.

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Original article on Spektrum.de

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