If you think that water is the best thing to be drinking for your oral health, then you’re only partially correct, because not all water is the same.

For instance, bottled water may be a convenient option when it comes to quenching your thirst—and it’s absolutely a much better choice than sugary sodas, sports drinks, or fruit juice—but it’s more harmful than you think.

The Environment

The bottled water industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and seems to continue to gain in popularity in spite of the environmental damage it causes. Over 1.5 billion tons of plastic water bottles go into landfills each year, and over 60 million plastic bottles are disposed of every day.

That not only creates a large amount of waste, but making, storing, transporting, and delivering bottled water consumes massive amounts of fossil fuels as well.

Bottled water can also be very toxic because of the plastic bottles containing phthalates and other synthetic chemicals that leach into the water—these chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in some laboratory tests.

Why It’s Bad for Your Teeth

Many people may not be aware of this, but bottled water is also bad for your teeth for a couple of reasons.

To begin with, purified water absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as an active absorber when it comes into contact with air, which makes it acidic. This process is even more pronounced in distilled water, making the water even more acidic and even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water—why would you want to drink it?

Because of its aggressive nature, purified and distilled water can be especially harmful to your teeth because the acidic level erodes the enamel on your teeth, making them vulnerable to cavities and decay.

Another problem with bottled water is that it is usually void of essential fluoride, which has been shown to protect and strengthen teeth.

The Final Say

Most tap water contains not only beneficial fluoride, but other important minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, silica, and bicarbonates, which are naturally occurring and not removed through any kind of purification process.

Finally, tap water is carefully and rigorously screened for contaminants, like E. Coli, cryptosporidium, and giardia. Bottled water is typically not tested for these—it is not a test required by the FDA.

When it comes to water, the best option right now is regular tap water.

~Dr. Marea White