Sparkling Water and Your Teeth: A New Study Offers Some Reassurance — With Caveats

If you have ever switched from soda to sparkling water and then worried whether the bubbles were still harming your teeth, a small new study presented this week may ease some of that concern — while stopping well short of a clean bill of health. Purdue University researchers measured how four different beverages changed salivary pH in 20 adults: sugar-sweetened soda, regular unsweetened sparkling water, calcium-fortified sparkling water, and plain still water. Rather than just testing how acidic each drink was in the bottle, the team tracked what actually happened inside participants' mouths after they drank each one.

The results, shared at NUTRITION 2026 — the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting held July 25–28 in National Harbor, Maryland — showed a clear difference between soda and sparkling water.

Soda caused the strongest and longest drop in salivary pH, while sparkling water produced only a temporary decline before saliva restored normal conditions. Importantly, acidity remained above the level associated with enamel damage.

Unsweetened sparkling water without calcium caused a temporary decrease in salivary pH at two minutes, whereas calcium-fortified sparkling water showed a decrease at five minutes — and for both, salivary pH returned to near baseline levels by 20 minutes.

There are real limits to what the study can tell us.

Twenty participants is a small sample, and the study appears to capture a single exposure per beverage rather than the repeated daily sipping that actually drives erosion in real life. It measured a chemical condition in saliva, not enamel hardness, mineral loss, or clinical erosion, and it followed no one over time.

Actual erosion risk also depends on how frequently a beverage is consumed, how long teeth are exposed, and whether the drink contains sugar.

A dentist commenting to Newsweek noted that

future research should track actual enamel wear over months or years, and that factors such as drinking habits, enamel condition, acid reflux, dry mouth, and brushing routines can all affect erosion risk.

For now, the lead researcher summed up the practical takeaway plainly:

"Many people are switching from soda to sparkling water, and our findings suggest that unsweetened sparkling water may be a lower-risk alternative to soda, when consumed in moderation and alongside good oral hygiene practices."

The team plans to follow up with longer-term studies examining how sparkling water affects other aspects of the mouth environment over time.

The findings are considered preliminary because they were presented at a scientific conference and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.