Drinking Tea to the Health of Your Teeth: How Tea Protects Your Teeth

Drinking Tea to the Health of Your Teeth

When deciding between the many drink options available, one of the best drinks for your oral health is brewed tea. A cup of green tea a day may keep the dentist away. Tea drinking obviously increases the odds of keeping your teeth as you age.

One study looked at more than 25,000 Japanese men and women between age 40 and 64 in making the determination of the effect of tea drinking on teeth health. They found that men who drank at least one cup of tea a day were 19 percent less likely to have fewer than 20 teeth than those who did not drink green tea. The women who drank tea had 13 percent lower odds.

One possible explanation for the benefits of tea drinking is that tea is a warm drink. It washes out your mouth. The study found that the effect of tea on tooth enamel was similar to that of water. Tea’s wash out on the teeth has no erosive effect to the teeth. Therefore drinking brewed teas resulted in dramatically less enamel loss than drinking soft drinks and fruit juices.

Although this result was from test using both green tea and black tea, another recent study conducted in Japan found that green tea has addtional oral health benefits due to the natural antioxidant compounds called catechins. Green tea is rich of catechins.

This study tracked 940 Japanese men aged 49-59. These people had some indications of gum disease such as bleeding or receding gums. The result of the test indicated that those who drank a minimum of one cup of green tea each day showed improvement in gum recession. Their gums also bled less too. The researchers suggested that the improvement was the result of catechins in the green tea. Catechins was responsible for killing mouth bacteria associated with tooth decay and gum disease. The researchers guess this was what gave green tea its dental benefits.

However there is one thing to remember: don’t add sugar to your tea. The bacteria in your mouth feed on sugar and produce acids that eat away at the enamel of your teeth and irritate your gums. You should also avoid prepackaged, bottled iced teas. Iced teas contain citric acid (which can wear away tooth enamel) and high amounts of sugars.

Drinking Black Tea and Your Teeth
Medical experts believe that drinking tea on a regular basis may be a good way to keep your teeth healthy. One of evidences they have discovered is that compounds found in black tea may attack harmful bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease and cavities.

Previously researchers have focused on the many health benefits of drinking green teas. Black tea is more commonly consumed in the Western countries. Recently a team from the University of Illinois, College of Dentistry conducted a study of the black teas, and found out that black tea has a significant impact on dental health.

They found that compounds in black tea were capable of killing or suppressing growth of acid production of cavity-causing bacteria in dental plaque. Black tea could help combat the build-up of plaque. Black tea also affects the bacterial enzyme glucosyltranferase. Glucosyltranferase is responsible for converting sugar into the sticky matrix material that plaque uses to adhere to teeth.

In addition, black tea will force certain plaque bacteria to lose their ability to form the clumpy aggregates with other bacteria in plaque, thereby reducing the total mass of the dental plaque.

One experiment was conducted recently with some volunteers. These volunteers rinsed their teeth with black tea for 30 seconds five times at three-minute intervals per day. The result showed that plaque bacteria stopped growing and producing acid. The acid broke down the teeth and caused cavities.