A Field Test on the Caries Preventive Effect of Tea Drinking

Abstract

Abstract:A cup of tea (containing about 0.49 mg F) containing soluble fluoride in the optimum necessary amount was recommended after every school lunch to 298 school children of Suhara in Sumon, Niigata prefecture, for about 250 days from December, 1975 to November, 1976. Increment lesions which appeared at three carious predirective sites, i. e., pits and fissures, proximal, and free gingival smooth surfaces of the children of the test school in the Suhara district were compared to the lesions found at the same sites in 185 children of three control schools in the Kamijo district of the same village. Reduction rates at each site were 52.8% for the pit and fissures and 57.2 % for the proximal sites, but there was no reduction at the free gingival sites.The main routes of natural fluoride taken in our body were simplified by Arif1) into four foodstuffs: water and salt from minerals, tea from vegetables, and fish from the animal kingdom.

Antimicrobial properties of tea (Camellia sinensis L.)

“…A similar finding was made with respect to Bordetella pertussis (16). Other workers (19,30,36) showed that aqueous extracts of green tea inhibited cariogenic streptococci, including Streptococcus mutans; activity against other harmful mouth flora has been reported in the patent literature (45). Tea extracts have been found to be active against Clostridium spp.…”

“…There is a report in the Japanese-language literature that drinking green tea reduced the incidence of dental caries among schoolchildren (29,30), but the validity of the conclusions is difficult to assess. It has been suggested (13) that this effect was due to an increased intake of fluoride, but this seems unlikely (36); rather, the polyphenol moiety of tea was thought to be responsible.…”

Anti-cariogenic properties of tea (Camellia sinensis)

“…Elvin-Lewis and Steelman [31] found signi®cantly lower DMFT and plaque scores in children who habitually drank one-to-three cups of tea per day than in those whose intake was only one-to-two cups per week (this report is in Abstract form only). The prospective trials by Onisi et al [32,33] showed that Japanese schoolchildren given one cup of green tea (`bancha') daily for 250 days had a 50% reduction in the most common types of carious lesions compared with a control group not given tea, and a reduction in incidence of caries during the ®rst year was maintained thereafter. A recent study in the UK found that 14-year-old children who drank tea (whether with added sugar or not) had a signi®cantly lower DMFT score than coffee drinkers [34].…”

Chemoprotection: A review of the potential therapeutic antioxidant properties of green tea (Camellia sinensis) and certain of its constituents

“…[41][42][43] This effect may be mediated by inhibition of the synthesis of insoluble glucans. 44,45 Epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate also interfered with the sucrose-dependent adherence of those bacterial cells at concentrations lower than their MIC.…”

“…Significantly lower caries scores were observed in specific pathogen-free rats infected with S. mutans JC-2 and then fed a cariogenic diet and green tea polyphenol mixture. [134][135][136][137] …”