• Question: What does E338 do to your teeth (phosophric acid)?

    Asked by hannahroberts to Allan, Nathan on 6 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 6 Jul 2012:


      Hi Hannah,

      Your mouth is normally very close to a neutral acidity (neither acidic nor basic) – in fact, it is very, very slightly acidic apparently… normally around pH 6.8 (pH 7 is neutral).

      When you eat foods that have a low pH (they are acidic), such as many fruit juices and fizzy drinks like coke and lemonade (have you ever heard of the “tooth in coke” experiment? someone put some scary photos online here: http://thecocacolaexperiment.blogspot.co.uk/), they do two things.

      Firstly, they make your mouth more acidic and your saliva production gradually brings back to the normal level, but that takes time. Most of the surfaces inside your mouth are designed to be safe at a your normal acidity. If you eat or drink acidic foods too much, this can stop your mouth working properly. For example, the enzymes in your mouth which start your digestion of food don’t survive if your mouth is too acidic or too alkaline, so your digestion will stop working. Also, you might irritate any small sores in your mouth and cause mouth ulcers.

      The second thing acidic foods do is attack the enamel on your teeth. Your tooth enamel is a hard tough layer coating your teeth, which protects your teeth against general usage and against tooth decay. There are no living cells in your tooth enamel, so if you damage it, it never grows back. If you consume acidic foods and drinks, like coke, this basically starts eroding the enamel on your teeth. It softens the enamel and dissolves some of the minerals away. It is much easier to damage and chip the enamel during this time. It is also very important that your mouth has time to recover after this process. If you drink too much fruit juice or fizzy drinks, your mouth cannot produce enough saliva to bring the pH back to safe levels. If you expose the “dentin” tooth layer underneath the enamel, this makes your teeth much more susceptible to decay.

      So what does this mean for E338? Well, it’s all about balance. If your foods or drinks contain too much acid, then it will start affecting your teeth and your digestion. Drinks, like coke and lemonade, often contain E338 and some of them are quite acidic. Now, your body is pretty tough. Having an occasional drink of lemonade will I’m sure be fine, provided it’s not the only thing you’re having and you don’t do it too often. But you have to ask yourself if drinks like coke taste good enough to be worth suffering the way they attack your teeth.

      And don’t kid yourself. We’re not talking here about things that you’ll start to notice when you’re 60 or 70 years old. You’ll probably start seeing the effects of these things when you’re 25 or 30 years old – probably starting with the occasional chip in your enamel which makes your teeth more sensitive, and perhaps a few fillings here and there. If you leave it until then to start looking after your teeth, you’ll be doing it for a long while to come.

      As time has gone on, my general philosophy on choosing drinks and food has gradually become to read the ingredients list and choosing whichever brand has the fewest number of ingredients – and preferably only ones where you actually know what they are and why they might be in the food. For example, Sainsburys plain brand Ginger Ale has only: Carbonated Water (which is still acidic, by the way), sugar, citric acid, flavouring, fruit concentrates (apple, hibiscus), potassium sorbate (preservative). That’s actually pretty good, believe it or not. Most of the name brand versions (like Schweppes) have many more random ingredients which do who-knows-what. And diet drinks are usually particularly bad – they may have no sugar, but they have all sorts of artificial sweeteners (are they really better for you than sugar?) and all sorts of other chemicals added.

      If you want more information, the wiki article on dental erosion might be a good place to start:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_erosion

      Cheers,
      Nathan.

    • Photo: Allan Pang

      Allan Pang answered on 6 Jul 2012:


      Phosphoric acid can lower down your bone density. Phosphoric acid is an acid (low pH) and when makes in contact with your teeth, the enamel begins to soften and dissolve that would lead to tooth decay.

      However, the irony here is that, phosphoric acid can be found in toothpaste and as whitening ingredient for the teeth! In this situation, the phosphoric etch and remove external stains on the enamel, and over time, the saliva replenishes and mineralise the teeth. Make sure that you rinse your mouth after you brush your teeth!

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