Hello again, it’s me your friendly neighborhood dentist. I’m wishing you all another lovely week and hope that the first few months of your year has proven promising.
I don’t know about you, but I am a big fan of coffee. Especially on these cooler days of the year. I have dear friends that can’t stand it, and honestly, I didn’t start drinking it until dental school. I needed the caffeine to help me through so many nights of studying. Since then I have developed a true dependency and love of this delicious brown energy liquid. However, I love to mix in the yummy creamer and sweetener, some might say more additives than actual coffee. One of the first things you’ll notice in the waiting room will be the refreshments bar, which hosts selections of several types of coffees. My six-year-old even prefers coffee to hot chocolate! Like mother like daughter. I could go on and on about coffee, but I’ll stop here.
As I was enjoying my morning cup of joe, I started thinking about it’s affects on my teeth. People are always concerned regarding the stains that coffee leaves. This is mostly a stain that sticks to the outside of your teeth, which is easily removed by proper hygiene. However, my mind went another direction this morning. I was curious as to the pH of my coffee. I know, I’m nerdy right?! I recently ordered some pH strips for a water testing project I have on the books, and I decided to use them today on my coffee. Guess what my strip told me? To my surprise my coffee concoction registered a 6 on the pH scale.
The pH scale tells us if something is acidic, neutral, or basic. Our teeth are made of enamel and dentin. Enamel begins to erode with anything that is more acidic (lower pH) than 5.5 and the dentin at 6.5. By testing the pH of my coffee, I was assured that my many cups a day, weren’t doing that much damage. Usually coffee has a pH of 5.5, but my lovely creamer helped me out on this front!! I tested the small water bottle from Nestle and was encouraged to see that they pH was nearly the same.
So, what is my point here you might ask. I just wanted to remind you to be aware of the foods and drinks that you ingest. Over time, extremes can cause irreversible damage to the tooth structure. I love getting to see you each time you come in, however, it’s so much nicer to tell you that you are disease free. So, on that note, be aware and keep drinking your coffee with creamer 😊 ha ha.