Drinks and dental health

The average daily requirement for water in man is 2-3 litres, of which more than half comes from drinks. Although the total consumption of various drinks is quite stable, the choices of beverages are slowly changing. In many Western countries e.g. the use of milk is declining while consumers drink greater amounts of soft drinks, including fruit juices and carbonated beverages. These changes may also affect dental health because of the potential risk of sugar and acid-containing drinks to cause dental caries and erosion. The effects of drinks in the human mouth are, however, strongly related to many individual factors and prediction of dental effects is therefore difficult. Anyway, there are risk patients who should be recognized, and risk products which should be noticed in product formulation. If attention is paid to such factors in the future harmful effects of drinks on teeth may be minimized.