The harm of gargling with tea

I believe that everyone has seen people gargling their mouths with tea. This is mainly because tea has the effect of sterilization and disinfection. Gargling your mouth with tea can eliminate oral bacteria and is helpful in preventing stomatitis and gingivitis. However, using tea as mouthwash also has certain hazards, especially tea with too high concentration, which can cause tea poisoning and affect the normal functioning of the nervous system.

In my country, using tea to prevent tooth decay has a long history. Su Shi of the Song Dynasty recorded the practical process of gargling with tea and drinking tea to prevent tooth decay in his "Dongpo Collection". In modern times, my country has also achieved satisfactory results in research on the anti-caries effect of tea. The mechanism is as follows:

Tea contains fluoride. After collecting and testing 38 kinds of tea from home and abroad, it was found that the fluoride content in my country's Fuling black tea was the highest, followed by Zhejiang Tiantai rain tea. For the same variety of tea, the fluoride content in coarse tea is higher than that in tender tea. Experiments show that tea needs to be brewed for 50 minutes before it can produce an anti-caries effect.

Tests on the content of tea polyphenols in tea have shown that green tea has a high content of polyphenols, which have a strong free radical scavenging effect and a certain antibacterial activity, and have a good inhibitory effect on caries-causing Streptococcus mutans. Using 0.2% tea polyphenols solution to brush your teeth and rinse your mouth can inhibit plaque. Its advantages are:

①The concentration and dosage can be accurately controlled.

②Contains no caffeine.

③The pigmentation on the tooth surface is relatively mild.

Tea contains catechins. Since catechins have certain antibacterial activity, when the catechin concentration is 0.2% to 1%, the bacterial adhesion ability and total bacterial protein can be reduced, thereby reducing the amount of dental plaque formation. Specifically, use 4 grams of tea leaves to brew a 0.5% concentration of tea, drink it, brush your teeth and rinse your mouth after 50 minutes, it can play a safe and effective role in preventing tooth decay.

Drinking coarse tea can easily cause fluoride damage

Everything has two sides, and drinking tea is no exception. Tea-drinking type fluorosis is a type of tea harm that should not happen. Its clinical manifestations are dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis and increased urinary fluoride.

Tea-drinking fluorosis is a slow and subtle process, and is related to tea drinking habits. Since the fluoride content of tea increases with the age of the leaves, the fluoride content of tea picked in spring (young tea) is the lowest. Brick tea and border tea are made from old tea and tea stems. Tests have shown that their fluoride content is 100 to 200 times that of ordinary tea. After brick tea and border tea are soaked in boiling water, the fluoride in them will dissolve rapidly. Residents in some ethnic minority areas of my country have to eat it with almost every meal, which can easily cause the fluoride intake into the body to exceed the normal range (>50mol/l or 4mg/day), resulting in chronic fluoride poisoning. Therefore, it is recommended that people abandon the habit of drinking old tea and coarse tea to prevent tea-type fluoride poisoning. Of course, brushing your teeth and gargling with soaked old tea or coarse tea water is a safe anti-caries measure and is worth promoting.

Eight types of food that can effectively prevent tooth decay

1. Phosphorus-containing foods

Phosphates can form a buffer system that prevents excessive acidification in the oral cavity, protects tooth enamel, and has a good effect in preventing tooth decay. Foods with relatively high phosphorus content include fish, shrimp, rice, lentils, peas, broad beans, soy products, vegetables, etc. The rich minerals and vitamins contained in these foods can help children's teeth develop more healthily.

2. Foods containing fluoride

Fluoride has two functions. It not only forms insoluble fluorapatite with the calcium-phosphorus compounds in teeth, effectively preventing bacteria from producing acid and corroding teeth, but also hinders the growth of bacteria, thus having a good anti-caries effect. Foods rich in fluoride include fish, shrimp, kelp, jellyfish, tea, mineral water, lettuce, cabbage, etc. Researchers have confirmed that the fluoride content in tap water is mostly 1 mg/L, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of tooth decay without causing poisoning due to excessive fluoride.

3. Calcium-containing foods

Calcium can effectively resist the acid production of bacteria and prevent the dissolution of calcium-phosphate compounds in teeth. Therefore, you should eat more foods rich in calcium. For example, milk, dairy products, etc. In addition, milk is rich in immunoglobulins and enzymes, which are very effective in inhibiting the growth of bacteria in the oral cavity and are effective in preventing tooth decay.

4. Raw food

Coarsely processed foods contain more minerals and fiber, and require more chewing when eaten, which is good for cleaning teeth and promoting digestion.

5. Fresh vegetables

Vegetables contain a large amount of trace elements and vitamin C, which are known as "anti-caries nutrients". The dietary fiber contained in vegetables is also an anti-caries nutrient. It has the effect of rubbing teeth, promoting saliva secretion, and removing bacteria on the surface of teeth. It can effectively prevent the formation of dental plaque and play an important role in preventing tooth decay.

6. Fruit

Fruits are rich in pectin, a substance that can effectively inhibit the growth of bacteria. In addition, when children eat fruit, the chewing action of their teeth will mechanically crush the fruit. At the same time, the crushed fruit will also mechanically scrub the teeth during the chewing process, and the bacteria attached to the surface of the teeth can be easily removed. Therefore, fruits that require vigorous chewing, such as apples and raw pears, also play a significant role in protecting teeth.

7. Animal offal

Animal offal is rich in iron and zinc, which can effectively inhibit the acid production of bacteria in the oral cavity and has obvious anti-caries effects.

8. Vegetable oil

In your daily diet, you should eat more vegetable oil and reduce the intake of animal oil. Vegetable oil has the function of forming a hydrophobic layer on the surface of teeth, which prevents the tooth substance from being dissolved by acidic substances and can play a good protective role for teeth.