A new study that was conducted in Japan, which has an ageing population, found a link between health and your teeth. The study, which was conducted at Osaka Metropolitan University, was based on dental
and health records from nearly 200,000 older adults.
The team of researchers that led the study are suggesting that simply counting how many teeth someone has is not enough. It is more important to go beyond just counting the number of teeth a person has and whether they are healthy, treated, or decayed, as this can make a world of difference in understanding a person’s health.
What Did The Study Find?
A healthy person doesn’t mean that they have all their teeth. For decades, researchers have associated tooth loss with poor health. Other studies relied on self-reports or estimates. However, the study classified every tooth as sound, filled, or decayed.
They found that older adults with a high number of sound or filled teeth were significantly less likely to die during the study period. In fact, those with no remaining teeth faced a mortality risk roughly 1.7 times higher than those with 21 or more functional teeth.
Untreated decay told a different story. Including decayed teeth diluted the model’s predictive accuracy. In statistical terms, adding them made predictions worse. In human terms, a tooth left to rot is not doing the body any favours.
Not All Drinks Are Your Friends
One way that your teeth can decay is with the drinks you consume. Long before cavities show up on a dental X-ray, your enamel is already under attack from acid, sugar, and long, slow sipping. Enamel does not grow back once it’s lost, so knowing which everyday beverages are the worst offenders can literally save your teeth over the long term.
Here are 6 drinks that you should avoid consuming regularly, as they can stain your teeth from the outside and affect them from within:
Regular soft drinks
Colas and fizzy drinks combine high sugar with strong acids like phosphoric and citric acid, dropping the pH well below the level where enamel starts to dissolve. Frequent sipping keeps teeth bathed in acid, causing surface roughness, thinning, sensitivity, and yellowing as the white enamel erodes and more dentin shows through.
Diet and zero-sugar sodas
Swapping to diet soda removes sugar but not acid. Many sugar-free soft drinks are as acidic—or even more erosive—than regular colas because of phosphoric, citric, and carbonic acids. That means they can still soften enamel, increase wear, and make teeth more vulnerable to decay from other foods.
Energy and sports drinks
Marketed as performance boosters, many energy and sports drinks are highly acidic and loaded with sugar, sometimes causing more enamel erosion than soda or juice in lab studies. The combination of low pH, sugar, and slow sipping during workouts or study sessions dramatically increases the time enamel is exposed to acid.
Fruit juices and fruit drinks
Even “100% natural” juices like orange, lemon, grape, and berry juices have high natural sugar and strong fruit acids that demineralise enamel. Because juice lacks the fibre of whole fruit and is often consumed in large glasses, it delivers a concentrated acid bath that can etch and thin tooth surfaces over time.
Coffee and tea
Plain coffee or tea is less erosive than soda, but they are mildly acidic and notorious for staining softened enamel. Add sugar, flavoured syrups, and milk, and you create a cavity-friendly mix that sticks to teeth—especially when sipped slowly throughout the day.
Flavored and sparkling waters
Unflavoured still water is enamel’s best friend; flavoured and sparkling waters are more complicated. Carbonation creates carbonic acid, lowering pH, and citrus flavourings add extra acid. While less damaging than soda, frequent consumption of acidic sparkling water can still contribute to gradual enamel erosion, especially if sipped instead of drunk quickly.
