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your free month today. Go to the Great Courses Plus dot com slash brain Stuff and remember that is the Great Courses Plus dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, it's me Christian Sager. So there's this urban myth that soda can dissolve a tooth overnight. The Internet has thoroughly busted this. But just because it's proven that hanging onto a mouthful of cola for upwards of twelve hours won't hollow out
your jaw, that doesn't mean you should try it. Soft drinks can indeed damage your pearly whites. But how and how much? Well, let's talk teeth. Your teeth have four basic layers, the root, the pulp, the denton protecting the pulp, and the enamel tooth. Enamel is the hardest tissue the human body produces. It's made up of crystal fibers packed together into a smooth mineral casing, or as we call it, a crown. But unlike your bones, enamel is not a
living tissue. Because it's not alive. That also means it can't repair itself. That means it takes damage from daily wear and tear, including what we eat and what we drink. There are two types of trouble. Drinks can cause all over erosion due to the acids they contain, and spot decay caused by the bacteria that grow on your teeth. Both come down to a pH imbalance on a scale from zero to xenomorph. The human mouth has a pretty
neutral pH level, something around six point eight. The pH scale itself runs from zero to fourteen, with zero being the most acidic, fourteen being the most base or alkaline, and seven being neutral like pure water. Some of the bacteria in your mouth are sugar hungry, so when you consume sweet stuff like soda, they throw the bacterial equivalent
of a house party. They'll link up into colonies on your teeth called a biofilm or plaque, and feast on the sugar and the lookscrete acids, which can weaken your enamel whenever they're ancred down, eventually causing cavities. But Christian, you might say, I only drink sugar free sodas well, that'll save you from cavities. But all sodas contain acids of their own. On the pH scale, soft drinks have been found to range from around four point oh to
two point four. For comparison, battery acid is a one. Your saliva should bring your mouth back to normal within half an hour or so, but your enamel can be affected by anything from about a five point five or below. The erosion in decay caused by chronic soda consumption can be rampant, and yes, rampant is the official medical term. In one case study, soda abuse was found to do
dental damage equivalent to meth or crack abuse. The only difference was the shade of discoloration in the patient's remaining teeth. Dentists recommend using straws and rinsing with water after drinking any acidic or sugar re stuff. They also stress rushing twice a day with fluoride or remineralizing products to help maintain your enamel. In fact, it can't heal itself from the inside the way your bones do, but the mineral
structure can be buffeted from the outside. These are good habits even if you've never touched a soda in your life. After all, sodas aren't the only culprits in enamel erosion, in tooth decay, and your future relationship with dentures isn't the only thing at stake here. Research has linked oral health and whole body health. This means a disease that starts in the mouth may have a hand in heart disease,
rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory infections, and even some cancers. Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.