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While many find this vague, citrus-y tasting drink a necessity to everyday life, consuming it may be causing irreparable harm to teeth. A few of the contents and chemical aspects of MTN Dew combine to make it especially harsh on teeth.

First off, we already know that sugar helps feed bacteria that help to degrade our teeth. As you may have read in our previous posts, bacteria in our mouth thrive off of sugar. After we consume the sugar, so do they. The by-product of the bacteria eating the sugar is acid which slowly demineralizes our teeth forming a cavity¹.

Next on the list of negatives for MTN Dew is the low pH. Similarly to how the acid that bacteria in our mouth produce a low pH, MTN Dew has a pH around 3.22². It has been well established that the outer enamel that protects our teeth demineralizes around a pH of 5.5². So every time a sip is taken from that green bottle, or whichever color MTN Dew you prefer, demineralization is happening.

Last, but not least and probably not the end of the list, MTN Dew contains Citric Acid. As the name suggests, what do you think it does? Fairly straight forward here–it has an erosive effect on teeth, lowers the pH and again, causes demineralization of tooth structure³.

Summary:

This is not a “You Cannot Drink MTN Dew” Post, as this information applies to pretty much all soda. This is a take note of how much soda you are drinking and adjust accordingly. Nothing wrong with a little MTN Dew in moderation. But the less soda you drink, the better for your teeth.

1. Von der Fehr, F. R., Löe, H., & Theilade, E. (1970). Experimental caries in man. Caries research, 4(2), 131–148. https://doi.org/10.1159/000259635
2. Reddy, A., Norris, D. F., Momeni, S. S., Waldo, B., & Ruby, J. D. (2016). The pH of beverages in the United States. Journal of the American Dental Association (1939), 147(4), 255–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2015.10.019
3. Fuller, J. L., & Johnson, W. W. (1977). Citric acid consumption and the human dentition. Journal of the American Dental Association (1939), 95(1), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.1977.0551

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