La Croix is not great for your teeth, but it’s far from the worst thing you could drink. With a pH of about 4.71, it sits in a mildly acidic range that can soften enamel over time, especially if you sip it throughout the day. Plain tap water, by comparison, has a neutral pH between 6 and 7. Still, La Croix is nowhere near as erosive as cola (pH around 2.4) or even orange juice (pH around 3.8).
Why Sparkling Water Is Acidic
The fizz in sparkling water comes from dissolved carbon dioxide, which reacts with water to form carbonic acid. This is a weak acid, but it’s enough to lower the pH below neutral. Plain, unflavored sparkling water typically lands in the pH 5 to 5.5 range. La Croix, which adds natural fruit flavoring, drops a bit lower to around 4.71. That matters because enamel, the hard outer layer of your teeth, starts to dissolve when exposed to liquids with a pH below roughly 4.5.
La Croix’s pH of 4.71 sits just above that critical threshold, which puts it in a gray zone. It’s unlikely to cause significant erosion on its own, but the margin is slim. Other flavored sparkling waters can be worse. In testing by CBC Marketplace, Bubly’s grapefruit flavor came in at a pH of 3.86, well into the erosive range. Perrier, an unflavored mineral water, measured a safer 5.46.
Flavored vs. Plain Makes a Big Difference
The real concern with sparkling water isn’t the carbonation itself. It’s what else is in the can. Citrus-flavored varieties contain acids beyond just carbonic acid, and those additional acids significantly increase the drink’s erosive potential. A study that tested flavored sparkling waters found they all had pH levels between 2.74 and 3.34, with erosive potential similar to or greater than pure orange juice. The researchers concluded that flavored sparkling waters should be treated as acidic drinks, not simply water with flavoring.
This distinction is important. A plain sparkling mineral water like San Pellegrino (pH 4.96) or Perrier (pH 5.25) poses minimal risk to your teeth. A citrus-flavored sparkling water with a pH in the low 3s is a different story entirely. La Croix falls somewhere in between, depending on the flavor. Citrus varieties like lime and grapefruit will be more acidic than something like berry or plain.
How It Compares to Other Drinks
Context helps here. If you’re choosing between La Croix and regular Coca-Cola, your teeth are much better off with the sparkling water. Cola has a pH around 2.3 to 2.4, plus sugar that feeds acid-producing bacteria. Diet cola isn’t much better at pH 3.0 to 3.1. Orange juice sits around 3.8. La Croix at 4.71 is meaningfully less acidic than all of these.
If you’re choosing between La Croix and tap water, though, tap water wins for dental health. It’s pH-neutral, and in most U.S. communities it contains fluoride, which actively strengthens enamel. Sparkling water doesn’t offer that benefit.
Your Mouth Recovers Quickly
Your saliva is surprisingly good at neutralizing acid. A clinical trial measuring oral pH after drinking carbonated water found that salivary pH stayed above 7.0, essentially neutral, even right after consumption. That’s a striking contrast to sugary soft drinks, which dropped oral pH to 6.8 in the first five minutes and took up to 45 minutes to fully recover.
This means a single can of La Croix with a meal is unlikely to do any measurable damage. Your saliva buffers the acid almost immediately. The problem arises when you sip sparkling water continuously over hours, repeatedly bathing your teeth in mild acid without giving saliva a chance to do its job.
How to Protect Your Teeth
The American Dental Association recommends drinking citrus-flavored sparkling waters in one sitting or with meals rather than sipping throughout the day. That single change dramatically reduces the total acid exposure your enamel faces. A few other habits help:
- Use a straw. This directs the liquid past your front teeth, reducing direct contact with enamel.
- Don’t swish it around. Treat it like a drink, not a mouthwash. The less contact time, the better.
- Wait before brushing. Acid temporarily softens enamel. Brushing right after drinking can wear away that softened layer. Give your mouth 20 to 30 minutes to remineralize first.
- Rinse with plain water. A quick sip of tap water after finishing your La Croix helps neutralize lingering acid and rinse it off your teeth.
- Choose less acidic flavors. Berry and plain varieties tend to be gentler than grapefruit, lemon, or lime.
If you drink one or two cans of La Croix a day with meals, your teeth will almost certainly be fine. If you keep an open can at your desk and sip it for hours, you’re giving that mild acid far more opportunity to work on your enamel than it deserves.