It seems like the job of drinking all types of delicious wine for a living isn't as glamorous as it's cracked up to be, as a new study shows that wine tasters' teeth can suffer from heavy erosion due to the extensive exposure to the chemical components in the drink.
Seemingly, wine tasters' teeth are exposed constantly to a great number of chemical components that'll cause damage to teeth, as they will soften tooth enamel and end up making teeth much more vulnerable to erosion - and that's only when someone's doing one session of wine tasting, the chances are much worse when this is a profession.
According to Shape Magazine, the new study in regards of wine tasters' teeth was recently published at the Australian Dental Journal by dental care researchers from the country's University of Adelaide, under the name "Nanoscratch testing for the assessment of enamel demineralization under conditions simulating wine erosion."
For the wine tasters' teeth study, researchers bathed enamel specimens in wine for small episodes of 10 minutes, and found that the acid exposure made the teeth quite vulnerable, The Drinks Business reports; given the fact that people who do this professionally will often perform this process from 20 to 150 times a day (plus judges tasting up to 200 of these wines a day every time there's a wine show), this represents a major dental health risk for them.
The director of the London Wine Academy, Leta Bester, has stated that the possible damage to teeth is something people in the trade are warned about, and tasters are usually advised to drink water or milk after wine tasting, as well as eating cheese - all of these measures are meant to neutralize the acidity.
They're also recommended not to brush their teeth for at least an hour after an event, to protect wine tasters' teeth.
"Our results reinforce the need for people working in the profession to take early, preventative measures, in consultation with their dentists, to minimize the risks to their teeth," said Dr. Sarbin Ranjitkar, the lead author of the wine tasters' teeth study, according to The Independent.
