Can probiotics benefit oral health?
Role they may play in improving teeth and gums intriguing, maybe even promising
Two cavities. The last words Sasha, a mother of three children, wanted to hear at the dentist’s office as her son, Spencer, was getting a checkup.
Spencer, who recently turned four, has now collected five cavities over the course of his young life.
A cavity develops when a tooth decays, or breaks down. It is a relatively large hole in the tooth that can grow larger over time. Cavities develop because of microbe-infested plaques made up of harmful bacteria that stick to the tooth and cause it to decay. It is one of the many diseases that can compromise your oral health. Others include dental infections and sores, gum diseases like gingivitis, and any other condition that may limit an individual’s ability to bite, chew, smile or speak.
Oral health is a very important part of overall health. Missing, stained or damaged teeth can affect employment and mental health and toothaches and dental infections can be extremely painful.
The mouth is home to 250 to 300 different types of bacteria at any given time. Though we usually think of bacteria as something that cause diseases, the human body is full of both “good” and “bad” bacteria. While the good bacteria are important to help with digestion in the mouth, stimulating saliva production and fighting bad breath, the bad bacteria can lead to cavities and gum disease; strep mutans is a particularly villainous species.
Many have suggested that one of the factors contributing to oral health is the careful balance between the helpful and non-helpful guests in your mouth.
Probiotics have been a recent hot topic in the media for their role in improving digestive health in the human body.
Probiotics have been shown to be beneficial in certain conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and antibiotic-triggered diarrhea. Probiotics work well for these conditions because they replace some of the harmful bacteria in your digestive tract, which is home to hundreds of species of bacteria.
Probiotics can be taken as supplements, or through diets that help promote the good bacteria in your system. Examples of probiotic-containing foods include yogurt, kefir and, little-known to most, sauerkraut and kimchee.
What most people don’t often hear about is the potential role probiotics may play in improving oral health. When there are more harmful bacteria than helpful bacteria in the oral cavity, symptoms of inflammation set in leading to dental pain and infection and bleeding and sensitive gums.
This all sounds great, but is any of this true?
Researchers in Barcelona collected all the published evidence they could find on the connection between probiotics and oral health.
Their review identified 12 randomized trials where subjects were given either some form of probiotics, or a placebo. Next, after a period of two months, researchers looked for the amount of the unfriendly bacteria (strep mutans) growing in subjects’ mouths. They also looked at how likely gums were to bleed as a result of poking with a metal dental probe, a sign of gum inflammation. Only a few studies followed patients long enough to look at cavities and gingivitis.
Although there were a few studies that showed positive results and thus a benefit in oral health to taking supplements of probiotics, others failed to show improvement. In a nutshell, probiotics to improve oral health is intriguing, maybe even promising, but certainly not proven to be beneficial at this time.
Most important to keep in mind is that diseases of teeth and gums are caused by a complex interplay of many factors unrelated to probiotic intake. Brushing and flossing, following a healthy diet, and visiting the dentist regularly are all part of ongoing oral care for healthy teeth and gums.