Sports Drinks evaluation by a sports - oriented Dentist

Author(s): Witold Bojar, Sylwia Flis, Pawel Rogus

Introduction: Modern amateur sportsmen often spend several hours daily on exercise. Especially those doing cycling, long-distance running or triathlon. Sports drinks are widely used by them on every training routine. Some studies have reported a close relationship between sports drinks and dental erosion. Are there any brands or formulations which can be advantageous and recommended by dental professionals?

Methods: 5 “isotonic” sports drinks, an energy drink, orange juice, vitamin water and 2 extempore drinks were chosen for the study. Their pH and osmolality were analyzed.

Results: The osmolality of the evaluated drinks varied over a relatively broad range (60-648 mmol/kg). In general, it was increasing with total carbohydrate content. The pH value was in the range of 2.76 to 3.90; what may have an impact on dental erosion.

Conclusions: It is always advisable for a sport person to choose a drink with a desired osmolality. This is not an easy issue, because the “isotonic” sports drinks and one of the ex tempore (home-made) drink did not have the optimal osmolality in our opinion. The value of big concern for every dental professional is however and undoubtedly the acidity of all the evaluated beverages. Taking into consideration both parameters, there was no drink in the tested group to be recommended by a sports-oriented dentist.