Certain drinking patterns can lead to tooth erosion and cavities. If you have a steady diet of drinking soda, sports drinks, or tea, you could be causing damage to your teeth. Having sugary drinks many times a day allows bacteria to make acid throughout the day. This raises your risk of getting cavities. While repeated exposure to drinks that are acidic raises your risk of tooth erosion.

What you can do to protect your teeth if you enjoy your sugary and acidic drinks:

1) Finish your drink within a time span of 20 minutes. This allows less exposure time and also allows the pH level of your mouth to get back to normal.

2) Drink or rinse your mouth out with water after you've finished your beverage. This helps to remove the sugar from your teeth and helps remove any acid that may be lingering.

3) Limit the amount of drinks you have in one day. If you can limit your consumption of highly sugary or acidic drinks to once a day your teeth will stay stronger and healthier over time.

The above diagram shows the relative acidity of common drinks. You can see that soda and sports drinks are very acidic which is not healthy for your teeth. Drinks such as milk and water are less acidic and provide a better option to keep your teeth happy and healthy.