In a word, the answer is yes. Soft drinks really do dissolve tooth enamel. Add this to the litany we have all heard about the poor attributes of soft drinks: all that sugar, the lack of nutrients, the empty calories, their contribution to child obesity and the way they tend to replace more nutritious drinks in our diets.

A study published in the journal General Dentistry in 2004 concludes that soft drinks “aggressively” harm teeth, although a spokesperson for the soft drink industry says that the study is “not realistic.” The study featured slices of enamel from freshly pulled teeth that were placed in different types of soft drinks and weighed and measured before and after exposure. Damage to tooth enamel begins within a few minutes of exposure, but it is cumulative exposure that leads to the most damage. In other words, people who drink soft drinks frequently are most at risk.

It is not the sugars in soft drinks that dissolve tooth enamel, but the high acid content of the drinks. Diet and regular soft drinks dissolve tooth enamel equally. The measure of acid in a liquid is measured on the pH scale, from zero to fourteen. A pH scale of seven is considered neutral and anything below seven is considered acidic. Water has a pH of close to seven. In contrast, the average pH of the soft drinks sampled for the study was between two and three. Battery acid has a pH of about one.

The acids that dissolve tooth enamel that are present in soft drinks are citric acid and phosphoric acid. They are also found in sport and energy drinks, which harm teeth in the same way. Damage to tooth enamel happens very quickly. For example, fruit juice also has a relatively high acid content, but cola soft drinks caused ten times more damage to tooth enamel within the first three minutes of exposure.

Other non-cola soft drinks and canned iced tea seem to be even worse. However, other acidic drinks, such as brewed tea, coffee, and root beer are not damaging. Beyond forgoing soft drinks, some experts urge drinking soft drinks through a straw in order to limit the exposure of your teeth to the acid. Some also warn that eating large quantities of high-acid foods such as lemons, yogurt, juice and pickles may cause similar damage to tooth enamel over time.