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Smile Destroyers: Drinks That Damage Your Teeth

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Watch what you're sipping.

Some of the most popular drinks on store shelves today may be seriously damaging your teeth.

TV 10-55's Katie McGee takes a closer look at some surprising ways we can destroy our smiles.

Energy drinks and sports drinks are offenders. Dr. Mark Wolff from NYU's College of Dentistry explains why:

"Energy drinks contain a lot of acid," he said. "We take a drink and it generally comes through our lips. Drinking it out of the bottle, [or] out of a glass, it hits our front teeth, gravity causes it to sink down, we swallow some of it, and then the remaining drink sits right around the outsides of the teeth, and just sits in that location."

Dr. Wolff said if you drink quickly, your own saliva should naturally wash away and neutralize the acid, but that isn't the case if you take a sup here and there, and that's when tooth erosion begin.

"The longer it sits on the surface, the longer the tooth is dissolving," he said. "And if we do it long enough and frequently enough, we begin to see loss of tooth structure."

For more on smile destroyers, check out the video below.

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