Is probiotic toothpaste good for dental health?

When it comes to probiotics, many people are familiar with them. The most familiar probiotic food is yogurt. The probiotics added are mainly lactic acid bacteria. Its main function is to expel evil and strengthen the intestinal bacteria, regulate the intestinal microecological environment, and thus prevent related diseases.

Our mouth is also a large bacterial reservoir, containing a wide variety of bacteria.

There are two major categories of oral bacteria known to the public, namely cariogenic bacteria and periodontal pathogens, which are the main sources of two common oral diseases, tooth decay and periodontitis. When these two types of bacteria are evenly matched, they can coexist peacefully, and the oral microecological environment is therefore calm and the teeth are healthy; if one type of bacteria becomes dominant, the balance of the oral microecological environment will be broken, and dental diseases will come unexpectedly.

Since the occurrence of these two types of dental diseases are related to oral microecological imbalance, can we also use probiotics to regulate the oral microecological environment to achieve the purpose of preventing dental diseases?

Recently, a toothpaste that claims to contain lactic acid bacteria has been launched, which is said to prevent tooth decay. However, is this really the case?

01 The key to microecological regulation is to distinguish between “friend and foe”

Since we are talking about preventing tooth decay, we have to talk about cariogenic bacteria. As mentioned before, this is not a type of bacteria, but a class of bacteria. This type of bacteria includes mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, actinomycetes, and non-mutant streptococci.

The common feature of cariogenic bacteria is that they are cariogenic, which represents the ability of bacteria to ferment "fermentable carbohydrates" to produce acid. This sentence has two meanings when translated: ① For cariogenic bacteria to exert their cariogenicity, they must have the cooperation of fermentable carbohydrates. As the saying goes, one hand cannot clap, and cariogenic bacteria cannot make a difference without fermentable carbohydrates. This is exactly why oral health education has always emphasized the need to control sugary diets; ② Cariogenic bacteria are not afraid of acid, otherwise they will fall into self-destruction mode.

So can the lactic acid bacteria in toothpaste inhibit or kill caries-causing bacteria? In fact, the lactic acid bacteria added to toothpaste and the lactobacilli in caries-causing bacteria are of the same family. If the former can kill the latter, then the former must be a model of "killing one's own relatives for the sake of justice"; and if lactic acid bacteria compete with mutans streptococci in acid production and acid resistance, the result can only be that the lactic acid bacteria "bring shame upon themselves". Therefore, wanting to use lactic acid bacteria to subdue caries-causing bacteria is nothing but wishful self-consolation.

But this does not mean that lactic acid bacteria have no ability to regulate the microecology, but its main target is periodontal pathogens. Many studies have tried to use lactic acid bacteria to inhibit periodontal pathogens, and have indeed achieved certain results.

So it is fine to use probiotics to regulate the microecological environment to prevent dental diseases, but you cannot confuse the enemy with the friend. Using the wrong object may result in the opposite effect!

02 The key to toothpaste that can prevent tooth decay is this!

There are many ways to prevent tooth decay. But if you ask which toothpaste is the most effective in preventing tooth decay, the answer must be fluoride toothpaste. The key to the success of fluoride toothpaste in preventing tooth decay is that it can continuously provide fluoride ions to the oral environment through years of brushing, which is one of the secrets to preventing tooth decay.

In addition to fluoride toothpaste, toothpaste containing xylitol also has a certain anti-caries ability, but its anti-caries ability is weaker than that of fluoride toothpaste.

Fluoride toothpaste is the most effective toothpaste for preventing tooth decay, bar none. Adding lactic acid bacteria cannot prevent tooth decay, and may even increase the risk of tooth decay, but it will have some effect on preventing periodontitis. This is the health truth about probiotic toothpaste!