Sports drinks are used all the time these days, in preference to water, from Rooball to Masters! Do you need it? Or do you simply need to hydrate correctly - with water?
Dentist sounds sports drinks warning
By Paul Kennedy and Tim Ayliffe
Updated Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:01pm AEDT
Dr Brett Dorney says he has witnessed a huge increase in dental erosion since the Sydney Olympics (AAP: Dean Lewins)
Dr Brett Dorney says he has witnessed a huge increase in dental erosion since the Sydney Olympics, when he was the event's deputy director of dental services.
Dr Dorney says he first noticed the link between damaged teeth and sports drinks when he reviewed the cases of twenty-five elite athletes in his Sydney practice in 1995.
"We were absolutely shocked to find that elite athletes do not have elite mouths," he said.
"They were suffering widespread erosion and a lot of them had decayed teeth, which is something that we did not expect from people that we look up to in the community.
"Normally two mechanisms are involved. One is called dental erosion, which is basically the tooth dissolving. The other one is dental decay [which] occurs because sports drinks are acid, and they allow acid resistant bacteria to build up on the tooth's surface."
Dr Dorney says a product that was developed six years ago could help limit erosion from sports drinks.
He cited a scientific paper released by Melbourne University in 2005 that examined the effects of adding a calcium product called CPPACP to sports drinks.
"When this was added... they found that the erosive potential of that product was dramatically reduced," he said.
"The other important part was that the flavour of the sports drink, according to the study... had not changed."
Dr Dorney, who will present his research to an international conference in the United States, says he is not encouraging athletes to stop consuming sports drinks.
But he insists they should be made aware of the dangers.
"I think modern dentistry is about education - you must give people the information so that they can make choices [about] dental health and what dental risk they are going to be at.
"[Tooth erosion] is multi-factorial, it depends on whether the person is dehydrated, it also depends on the sport they are playing, the intensity of the sport, whether they have had sufficient fluid before they started playing."
Emma Rippon, a sports dietitian employed by the Collingwood Football Club, says sports drinks play a vital role in athletic performance.
"Sports drinks were originally designed to help elite athletes to maintain their sporting performance during activity," she said.
"They provide fluid, they provide carbohydrate for energy, they provide electrolytes, sodium and potassium so they are a really important part of an athlete's nutritional strategy."
But Ms Rippon agrees sports drinks cause problems for some athletes.
"There is a problem with tooth decay and tooth enamel erosion in athletes who misuse or overuse sports drinks. We are aware of that as a professional organisation of sports dietitians, we know [it] can be an issue," she said.
She says one way of minimising harm is by reducing the amount of contact the acidic fluid had with teeth.
"They can squirt the drink to the back of their mouth... [and] they can then follow up with some water to help rinse their mouth out as well," she said.
"And not drinking it while they have a mouthguard in their mouth as well, which would obviously hold the sports drink in their teeth."
Ms Rippon warns recreational athletes and children should also beware.
"There's a level of education for these young kids who are again drinking these things because there's a marketing hype, or they have just stopped into the milk bar on the way to school, and I do see it myself and it is a concern, because that is the misuse of these products," she said.
"Also, we are not encouraging our kids and not giving them the right messages if they are having these types of fluids instead of having proper nutritious food."
Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade play a major role in sponsoring elite sports teams and individual athletes.
Ms Rippon says it is not the role of the manufacturers of sports drinks to educate consumers about the dangers of misusing sports drinks.
"But again there is an element of education and seeking the right advice from professionals in the industry and in the area to help people get an understanding about whether sports drinks are right for them," she said.
Powerade, owned by Coca Cola, states on its website: "The combination of carbohydrate in a somewhat acidic environment can cause dental cavities and/or erosion, however sports drinks are no different to many foods and fluids".
"Minimise the contact time between the sports drink and teeth (for example by swallowing immediately and rinsing with water regularly whilst using a sports drink). also, don't wash your mouthguard with a sports drink before putting it in your mouth."
Gatorade, owned by Pepsico, said it employed a nutritionist to work closely with sports bodies, including the Australian Institute of Sport, to ensure the best use of its products.
-Paul Kennedy presents Contact Sport at 7.30pm AEST tonight on ABC News 24.
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