The Sugarless Myth: Are Artificial Sweeteners Good form your Teeth?

If you’ve been stirring natural sweeteners into your beverages in an effort to cut sugar from your diet, you may not necessarily be at a lowered risk for cavities or other teeth and gum diseases. Sugar-free sweeteners are all the rage among the health conscious, but these are not necessarily safer for your teeth.

Many people remain under the misconception that anything that’s natural is by default, good for health, including oral health.  That's not really true. For instance, natural sweeteners may not contain sugar, but they may contain other sweeteners like honey, fructose, cane sugar or syrup. These may have a lower number of calories than sugar does, but they can cause just as much as damage to your teeth as sugar can. Too many people get taken in by the ‘’sugar free’’ tag and don’t realize that these sugar substitutes can be just as harmful to their oral health.

To tell whether the foods that you eat and beverages you drink contain hidden sugars, look for ingredients ending with letters ‘’ose’’ on the product's nutritional information label. The more number of such ingredients added to your beverage, the higher the amount of sugar the product contains. Besides, natural sugars are also listed under the "carbohydrates" section of the nutritional information label. Just because a beverage or supplement does not openly list sugar as one of its ingredients does not mean that sugar is absent from the product.  It's only listed under a different name. Sugar by any other name, is just as dangerous for your teeth and gums.

Artificial sugar substitutes like saccharin on the other hand, have a lower calorie count than sugar, and may not be as dangerous to oral health as natural sugar substitutes. For instance, saccharin which has a sweetness quotient that’s around 300 times higher than sugar is believed to be gentler on the teeth than sugar.  There have been concerns over the health effects of saccharine in the past, particularly its links to cancer. In the past decade however, these concerns have diminished. Saccharin brands like Sweet 'N Low have however been linked to bladder cancer, although these findings have not been conclusively proven. Other artificial sweeteners include aspartame and Ace sulfame potassium, and these are used extensively in chewing gums, coffees, desserts, syrups and baked foods.  These sweeteners have not been found to have a high risk of dental cavities.

There are certain ingredients called sugar alcohols that can actually protect against dental cavities. An example is Xylitol, a natural sweetener sourced from strawberries and other fruits.  Xylitol is added to chewing gums, syrups, candies and tooth pastes. Bacteria in your mouth are not able to breakdown xylitol when you chew gum or eat candy containing the ingredients. Therefore, no bacterial acids are produced.  In the absence of bacterial acids, the process of cavity formation is nullified before it even begins. This makes Xylitol that rare thing – a sweetener that’s actually good for your teeth.