Let the Black Tea & Green Tea take care of your Oral Health

• Siddharth Kumar Singh,  
• Anjali Gupta,*  
• Tushar Mathur,  
• Sayak Roy

Abstract

Dental caries today is a huge trouble and a worry in the whole world. It is one of the most prevalent chronic oral disease among children and adult in the world. The prevalence of DMFT index as a diagnostic criterion in the estimation of dental caries in the age group of 3–18 years was found to be 57% whereas in patients aged above 18 years it was much higher that is 77%. Many studies have been carried across all over the world to find the cause behind it and the main cause which was well accepted by the people was the action of pathogenic bacterial micro flora such as streptococcus mutans in oral cavity on the tooth surfaces. These bacteria strongly adhere to the tooth surface and produce lactic acid after fermentation of sucrose and various carbohydrates, which is responsible for the cavitation in the teeth. Many experiments and efforts have been made to remove streptococcus from oral cavity like antibiotic, oral drugs and more of which some are beneficial but have side effects after long term use, such as vomiting, diarrhea, resistance, teeth staining etc. That's why search ended at tea which is becoming a popular beverage and a widely consumed drink these days that has anti-streptococcal properties with least of side effect. Through the years, tea consumption in India transformed from a colonial export to an everyday drink. India is one of the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounts about 29 per cent of world production. Tea has strongly been associated with the medicinal plants that have been a major source of therapeutic use and good health since years in India.

Keywords

antibacterial activity,green tea,black tea,streptococcus mutans