How many sugars in your tea/coffee, how many do you drink a day, and how many cavities have you had? Age please too

Posted by Wild-Currency-9065@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 46 comments

I've had enough of the famous "dash of semi-skimmed, no sugar." It brings me no joy. Today I had a glorious cup of tea with whole milk and one demerara sugar. I want to start having one AM, one PM, but finally got my teeth the way I wanted at 30 and don't want cavities. Deathly afraid of them, more so than when I needed my wisdoms out. I brush and floss, have the odd biscuit, and eat a typical beige UK diet. So yeah please tell me your tea habits :D

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ActionBirbie@reddit

4-6 coffees or teas, 1/2 sugars in each. No cavities. Not giving you my age you nosy bastard, but I'm older than you by a margin.

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snarkmaiden5@reddit

Id say dont get too bogged down by it or you'll be obsessing about every intake of sugar. Saying that - acidity is another factor. Can't get away from it really. Just enjoy and brush and floss often.

My eldest sister was terrible, dont know if she still does, she used to have 4 spoons in one cup...

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Far_Kaleidoscope_102@reddit

3 sugars. Can be as many as 3-6 coffees a day. Forget cavities! 2 crumbled away completely and one recently pulled out. Molars btw so I have to be real careful with eating crisps etc, you don’t want a sharp end in the gum! -_-

I have since cut down to 2 sugars and 2 coffees a day. Also mostly quit sweets :(

Too much sugar is bad for you guys trust me.

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Dimac99@reddit

I had two sugars and lots of milk in my tea as a child but I suspect all my cavities were more down to the fucktonne of sweeties I was constantly eating and poor oral hygiene. The only time I need work done now in my 40's is when the old fillings begun in childhood break and decay underneath.

I drink both tea and coffee without sugar and with (lots of) semi skimmed milk and have done for about 20 years. They taste perfectly fine to me. I have a very sweet tooth but within days of stopping the sugar, I stopped missing it in tea and coffee and now they taste unpleasant with it.

If you restrict tea and coffee to mealtimes and/or chew sugar free gum afterwards, that will help as saliva neutralises the acid. Don't brush immediately after eating or drinking though as enamel is weakened at that point and it's best to wait at least half an hour. It's recommended to not brush more than 3 times a day at most.

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hoefromengland@reddit

2 sugars, no cavities, but i am 17

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Arch-Com_Songster@reddit

Just brush your Fcking teeth and stop being a Reddit drama queen, pathetic pointless post.

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sparklybeast@reddit

Late 40s and I barely have any whole teeth left. I don’t drink any sugary drinks outside of the occasional cocktail. Rarely drink coffee, never drink tea. I did guzzle fruit juice as a teenager though, which I suspect did a lot of the damage.

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idcalvin@reddit

Tea: At home, oat milk (sorry, ex dairy farmer who hates the industrialisation of milk production) with Stevia. At work, semi-skimmed (it's what we use, sadly) with the occasional half spoon of sugar. 5 or 6 mugs per day

Coffee: Oat milk/semi, depending on where I am, 1½ spoons of sugar. 2-3 mugs power day

2 or 3 cavities, I think. Good luck, don't stress, that'll do you even more harm.

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tiny-brit@reddit

0, 1, 0, 27

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PiotrGreenholz01@reddit

2 in tea, 2 in coffee, mid 50s, no cavities (not since early teens anyway)

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silentdragoon@reddit

No sugar in coffee, one in tea, no cavities. 37.

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Tricepesaurus@reddit

Doesn’t matter about your sugar intake or how often you brush your teeth, you either have good healthy gums and teeth or you don’t.

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ceehred@reddit

55M, 4 cavities - from pre-teen years, all the number sixes, replaced several times (lost one, and one is capped). Though my adult front teeth came through a bit fucked from the gallons of liquid penicillin I was prescribed for endless ENT issues until age 7 (have caps and veneers to hide that).

No sugar in tea/coffee for nigh on 20 years now. My teeth get enough attack from alcohol, fruit juice and grinding already. The worst I get from tea/coffee/red-wine is some staining on the imperfections on the bottom fronts, which I get cleaned-up once or twice a year.

My thought for you would be to rinse/drink with some water after your cuppas, don't let it sit on your teeth too long. And don't brush too soon after without at least a rinse, or some time for your saliva to do its job. You'll be fine.

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BorderlineWire@reddit

Day to day, no sugar in tea or coffee. Amount of cups consumed and whether it’s tea, coffee, green tea or Yerba mate varies quite a bit. Anything from one to I lost count.

Occasionally I’ll be in the mood for coffee of a particular style or flavour and then it might have some sugar in but generally not much, I don’t really like it too sweetened.

0 cavities

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Top-Significance8791@reddit

None in my tea, about 3 a day.

1 in my coffee, maybe once or twice a week.

No cavities. 30 years old.

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LauraPa1mer@reddit

Coffee - 1 tablespoon Tea - 2 tablespoons

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Just-an-idiot-online@reddit

Never add sugar, very rarely drink tea or coffee anyway.
I do drink a lot of fizzy drink, and got my first cavity last year (aged 38)
I think I've been lucky/good genes, because I have not looked after my teeth until now.

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PepsiMaxSumo@reddit

0 sugars in tea or coffee.

Cavities? Fuck loads. 5 fillings so far, may need another 3. I’m in my mid 20s. Brush teeth twice a day.

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meower_to_the_people@reddit

None in my tea, black.

1 teaspoon of demerara in my coffee (unless it's those sachets then 3, because they're fuck all of a teaspoon) and skimmed milk. If using instant coffee, 2 teaspoons coffee so it's not like gnats piss as I will want like 1/3 of the cup to be milk (if you can actually call skimmed milk, milk. Which you can't really, it's more like white water but trust me, water is not an equal replacement)

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Wild-Currency-9065@reddit (OP)

Tell me about it, those sachets, I once did sachet after sachet in a latte at Costa and shoulda seen the looks of disgust I got from a guy behind his laptop. Eh fuck it lol

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meower_to_the_people@reddit

Oh yeah you wanted to know about cavities (you mean fillings?). Not had any since I was a kid. Age-wise, well, I'm not a kid.

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MiserablePool1725@reddit

There’s definitely some genetics involved with quality of teeth. So I’d say don’t rely on just tea /coffee sugar ~ cavity ratio.

But to answer your Q- 2 teas with milk and 1.5 tsps of Demerara sugar a day, no cavities, middle aged.

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Square_Bid_3963@reddit

Coffee black, tea strong with a dash of milk. No sugar in either drink, but I've always loved toffees and always had perfect teeth, and was complimented by the dentist on every visit. Until I had my second child and he apparently sucked all the calcium out of me - first filling 6 months after he was born and toffees are not an option for me now sadly.

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Current_Mongoose_844@reddit

Occasionally I will put some rock sugar in my tea like the East Frisians do. Preserves the flavour of your tea with a shot of tea-flavoured syrup at the very end.

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MiserablePool1725@reddit

There’s definitely some genetics involved with quality of teeth. So I’d say don’t rely on just tea /coffee sugar ~ cavity ratio.

But to answer your Q- 2 teas with milk and 1.5 tsps of Demerara sugar a day, no cavities, middle aged.

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NobleRotter@reddit

Mid fifties. No sugar. 7 or eight coffee and a couple of teas daily.

One cavity as an adult and one from my sweet eating days.

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swanbrin@reddit

I usually drink coffee with a syrup, therefore no sugar, however, if I go without I use the same as I do in tea, which is 2. I drink 1 tea a day, very rarely 2, and also very rarely drink coffee. I did however used to drink too many fizzy drinks which my dentist told me to cut. I now drink maybe 2l of fizzy drinks a week (substantially cut down) as I’ve subbed my coke at work to a squash. I have no cavities.

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LennonC123@reddit

My dentist told me that if you’re going to have sugar, you might as well have it all in one sitting per day because it takes about an hour to break it down. It’s fine to have that cup of tea but don’t ‘graze’ on sugary snacks/drinks throughout the day

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CuteMaterial@reddit

One in my tea. Age 43. A lot of cavities but I do eat a lot of sweets 😞

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cgknight1@reddit

Zero, fifty, none.

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Limp-Archer-7872@reddit

Zero.

Because I used to have more than that and now have fillings.

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norfolkandclue@reddit

1 sugar in coffee and a teaspoon of honey in green tea if I'm home or a coffee/tea with 1.5 sugars at work. Average less than 2 a day. Zero cavities at 29.

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Zathral@reddit

No sugar in my coffee unless it's a flask of instant (ew) made far too strongly for a late night study session. I do not like my coffee sweet.

Usually at least 4 per day. Rarely less than 3. Most often 5.

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