Dentistry and Alcoholic Beverages – Can Alcohol Erode Your Tooth Enamel?

Alcohol is a big topic in Littleton Family dental offices. While a lot of people aren’t really promoting the negative traits of alcohol when it comes to dental health – since those negative traits can be a lot more harmful in other areas, such as the health of your brain, heart and vascular system – it’s important to keep track of it as well.

Alcohol has acidic properties, and it can be quite harmful in most cases. Strong alcoholic beverages such as whiskey or rum are especially problematic, because the higher concentration of alcohol can have a stronger impact on your teeth.

But how does alcohol affect the enamel? Normally, in smaller concentrations, it doesn’t. However, given frequent enough alcohol consumption and a large enough concentration, alcohol can eat away at your enamel, achieving a similar effect as when you brush your teeth too much. Moreover, alcohol consumption can also lead to staining, as the coloring agents within alcoholic beverages end up affecting the teeth and being “pasted” on the enamel itself.

Most alcoholic beverages are “bad” in this respect, but not all of them. Beer and drinks like the Japanese sake have a lower concentration of alcohol, so they don’t pose much of a threat if you don’t drink a lot. Furthermore, studies have shown that red wine can even have a positive effect on the teeth, when compared to most other types of alcoholic beverages.