Text III. Tea fights cavities, reduces plaque

University of Illinois College of Dentistry

Drinking tea may help fight cavities! A group of researchers from the University of Illinois College of Dentistry believe that black tea and its components benefit oral health by interfering with the harmful plaque bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease and cavities. They reported their results at the 101st General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, Florida.

"In recent years, many symposia and publications have focused on the health effects of green teas. Earlier studies by Japanese scientists have suggested that consumption of green tea lead to reduction of dental cavities in humans," says Dr. Christina Wu, the principle investigator of the study. "However less attention has been focused on black tea, the more popular drink in the Western countries, and worldwide 80 percent of the tea consumed is black tea."

Dr. Wu and her colleagues found that compounds in black tea were capable of killing or suppressing growth and acid production of cavity-causing bacteria in dental plaque. Black tea also affects the bacterial enzyme glucosyltranferase which is responsible for converting sugars into the sticky matrix material that plaque uses to adhere to teeth. In addition, certain plaque bacteria, upon exposure to black tea, lose their ability to form the clumpy aggregates with other bacteria in plaque, thereby reducing the total mass of the dental plaque.

One study conducted in Dr. Wu's lab found that when volunteers rinsed with black tea for 30 seconds five times at 3-minute intervals plaque bacteria stopped growing and producing acid, which breaks down the teeth and causes cavities. This research supports an earlier Swedish study that found rinsing the mouth with black tea significantly reduced plaque build-up. "It is our belief that the intake of black tea can be significant to improve oral health of the general public," says Wu. "If sequenced properly between meals and normal oral hygiene, a reduction in dental caries may be possible. Drinking tea may have oral health benefits preventing the most prevalent diseases of mankind, mainly caries and periodontal disease."

Text IV. The suspected link between mothers’ gum disease and the health of her offspring.

University of North Carolina

Mothers who suffer from gum disease are significantly more likely to deliver their babies prematurely than women without that illness, which also is known as periodontal disease, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows. Such women also are more likely than others to deliver babies whose weight is less than normal.

Offenbacher, director of the Center for Oral and Systemic Diseases, presented his group’s findings in San Diego at the annual meeting of International Association for Dental Research. In the five-year study, researchers evaluated periodontal disease in more than 850 women before and after they gave birth and divided the women into groups representing healthy gums, mild disease and moderate-to-severe disease.

They then adjusted for risk factors affecting birth timing and weight such as age, race, food stamp eligibility, marital status, previous pre-term births, smoking and other health problems.

“This prospective study confirms our earlier case-control studies showing that both periodontal disease and periodontal disease progression during pregnancy have an effect on the fetus,” Offenbacher said. “It increases the risk of pre-term delivery two-fold or greater depending on whether there is fetal exposure during pregnancy. This is complemented with new information suggesting that some organisms from mothers’ periodontal tissues actually get in the bloodstream and target the fetus.”

In other words, he said, babies developing in women’s wombs are being adversely affected by germs growing in their mothers’ mouths such that they are born early or at lower than normal weight. Scientists find antibodies to specific organisms in placental blood at the time of delivery. “One in 10 babies in the United States is born too small or too early, which is a major cause of sickness and mortality,” Offenbacher said.

Gum disease may be responsible for up to 18 percent of pre-term deliveries, as the study suggests. The gum disease’s effect appears to be as strong as smoking or alcohol abuse. The fact that there are specific organisms that can cause growth and delivery problems, opens up a new avenue for preventive care.

New research is under way to determine if treating pregnant women’s gum disease cuts their risk of pre-term delivery.

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