Dental erosion has become a prevalence disease and attracted increasing attention worldwide. In this research, we quantitatively evaluate the mechanical and morphological changes in the very early stages of softening and weakening of human enamel surfaces induced by soft drinks using atomic force microscopy (AFM). With an increase of the immersion time in soft drinks, we found a significant increase of surface roughness (R_q) of the enamel surface. The prismatic structure of enamel was clearly observed after a 1-h immersion in Coca-Cola®, which shows its strong erosion effect. According to the elastic modulus mapping images obtained by AFM, a considerable decrease of elastic modulus (E) of enamel surface has been found as the enamel surface structures are etched away by soft drinks. A high surface roughness of enamel will result in a high chance of cavities due to easier bacterial adhesion on rougher surface, while a drastic deterioration of the mechanical properties of the enamel will weaken its protection property. Our findings show the serious influence of acidic drinks on enamel surface at the very beginning stage of etching process, which is quite meaningful for people to prevent dental erosion and keep dental health.

牙侵蚀已经成为一种普遍的疾病，并且在全世界引起了越来越多的关注。在这项研究中，我们使用原子力显微镜（AFM）定量评估了软饮料使人牙釉质表面软化和弱化的非常早期的机械和形态变化。随着在软饮料中浸泡时间的增加，我们发现搪瓷表面的表面粗糙度（R _q）显着增加。在可口可乐®中浸泡1小时后，可以清楚地观察到搪瓷的棱柱结构，这表明它具有很强的腐蚀作用。根据AFM获得的弹性模量映射图，弹性模量（E由于搪瓷的表面结构被软饮料腐蚀掉，因此发现搪瓷表面的厚度为）。搪瓷的高表面粗糙度会由于在较粗糙的表面上更容易附着细菌而导致出现蛀牙的可能性很高，而搪瓷的机械性能的急剧下降将削弱其保护性能。我们的发现表明，在蚀刻过程的最初阶段，酸性饮料对搪瓷表面的严重影响，对于人们预防牙齿腐蚀和保持牙齿健康具有十分重要的意义。