Dental health is a crucial element of our health and well-being. In fact, the medical community has pointed to the fact that poor dental health is related to respiratory problems, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.
This is why regular visits to the dentist are not only recommended but indeed essential. And when it comes to dental hygiene, there are ever so many products out there that compete to gain your trust and approval.
However, no matter the technology and the ingredients that are involved in all these dental-care products, and no matter how regularly we use them, today’s trends simply require something more.
Now, scientists from the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland have found that “something” that has been missing in our toothpaste and suggest that it will surpass the efficacy of any toothpaste out there – it’s coconut oil.
In particular, enzyme-treated coconut oil, as the team found, can combat the Streptococcus mutans strain of the Streptococcus bacteria which naturally inhabit our mouth.
The Streptococcus mutans is an acid-producing bacterium that has been found to be the major cause of tooth decay and can be completely eliminated in contact with the enzyme-treated coconut oil. It was also found that the enzyme-modified coconut oil could fight the yeast Candida albicans that causes thrush.
“Dental caries is a commonly overlooked health problem affecting 60-90% of children and the majority of adults in industrialized countries,” says Dr. Damien Brady who is leading the research.
“Incorporating enzyme-modified coconut oil into dental hygiene products would be an attractive alternative to chemical additives, particularly as it works at relatively low concentrations. Also, with increasing antibiotic resistance, it is important that we turn our attention to new ways to combat microbial infection.”
The researchers suggest that this find could have a potential as a marketable antimicrobial of particular interest to the oral healthcare industry. However, it remains that we wait and see as to when this enzyme-modified coconut oil will hit the markets.
Do you use coconut oil? Would you switch your regular toothpaste with a coconut-oil toothpaste?
Source: Phys.org
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