Surprising Facts About Coffee Your Dentist Hasn’t Told You Dr. Call Dental Center

As a local dentist, patients regularly ask us about certain foods and beverages to see if they are okay to eat or drink of their oral health. We love answering these questions because a healthy diet does impact whether or not teeth and gums are healthy and stay that way. For example, drinking water is good for your mouth, and your body where using chewing tobacco can increase your risk of oral cancer by sixty times. While an extreme example, it does show how what you put into your mouth can impact your health.

Oftentimes the advice we give is expected. Things like eating crunchy green vegetables makes sense because people understand that they help with health overall. What many patients are unaware of is the benefits to drinking coffee. A recent study published in the Journal of Periodontology shows how coffee can be good for your oral health. The report was authored by researchers at the University of Boston that wanted to find out if coffee had any direct health benefits to teeth and gums.

In order to find out, they reviewed data that was gathered by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston over the course of thirty years. During this time, they collected data on the dental exams and food intake of more than 1,100 men. The study is interesting due to the large sampling and duration of it. After three decades, researchers at the University of Boston had a lot of data to sort through and were able to break participants into two categories. Men that drank at least one cup of coffee a day had fewer teeth with bone loss than the group who were not regular coffee drinkers. This may be significant since the majority of adults suffer from some form of tooth loss as they age. Anything that can be done to strengthen teeth and gums should, therefore, be considered for its beneficial properties. As a dentist, we understand that the caffeine could logically help to improve gum health because it is an anti-inflammatory and swollen gums are the first sign of gum disease.

There are multiple ways to decrease the risk of gum disease, drinking coffee now being one of them. Brushing and flossing throughout the day is still the most important thing since it allows you to remove bacteria and plaque from your teeth and gums. Additionally, rinsing with an antiseptic mouthwash can help. Furthermore, patients should visit our dentist office for a teeth cleaning twice a year to remove any bacteria and plaque that has been left behind. This combined with a healthy diet, drinking plenty of water, and avoiding tobacco products can keep your teeth healthy.

Avoiding gum disease is extremely important for preventing tooth loss since as gum disease grows it causes the gums to recede, and pockets can be created in the gum tissue. Bacteria can gather here and start to attack the exposed teeth and roots. This can be painful and create further health issues. To see if your gums are in good health, schedule a dental exam.