Dr. Mogell Dental Blog

Boca Raton Cosmetic Dentist

Green Tea...good dental health!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is familiar to all of us. Now we may be able to say “green tea keeps the dentist away”. Dentists keep spreading the word that flossing everyday increases your life expectancy. Now it also appears that drinking at least one cup of green tea on a daily basis will significantly increase the odds that you can keep all of your teeth into a ripe old age!

Alfredo Morabia, the editor of Preventative Medicine and a professor at Columbia University states "green tea may have bactericidal effects, which would affect teeth, but only if you drink it without sugar." Yasushi Koyama, of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and colleagues studied more than 25,000 individuals and found that people who drank at least one cup of green tea on a daily basis were 13-20% more likely to have all of their teeth as opposed to those who didn’t drink the tea. It appears there is an antimicrobial element in green tea called catachins that could be providing this benefit. Catechins have been shown to kill mouth bacteria associated with tooth decay and gum disease, so the researchers suspect this is what gives green tea its dental benefits.

This is just another example of the unique health advantage that can be gained by adding something as simple as tea to your diet. If you have any questions regarding your dental health and your concern for periodontal disease, please give us a call at 561-394-9000. We will arrange an appointment to get you on your way to a healthier mouth.

Kenneth A. Mogell, D.M.D.