The recently published research comes from a team at the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois Chicago. It was published in the journal Beverages.
The researchers were investigating the ability of certain polyphenols to inhibit the formation of biofilms in the oral microbiome. The formation of these films, which harden into dental plaques, is one of the principle mechanisms of tooth decay and gum disease.
How best to support oral health in a sugar-laden world?
To test how the various polyphenols performed, the researchers sourced a number of different packaged and ready-to-drink teas containing both green and black tea, raspberry-flavored RTD teas and cranberry juice cocktail beverages (with and without sugar) as test materials.
The researchers noted that even with widespread fluoridation in water supplies, many children and adults still suffer from tooth decay in the United States. The large consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, many of which contain multiples of the daily recommended sugar intake in each serving, seems to have partially swamped that public health intervention.
So, if children are going to be drinking sugar sweetened beverages anyway, what are the best choices from an oral health perspective?
To test whether these beverages provide that answer, the researchers took plaque samples from 16 children ages 7 to 11 that contained Streptococcus mutans and cultured them, then added the cultures to the test materials.
The results showed that all of the polyphenol beverages restricted S. mutans growth and biofilm formation to some degree. But the raspberry flavored teas and the cranberry juice products performed the best.