Drink red wine to ward off cavities

New Delhi: Here is some good news for wine lovers as new studies suggest that drinking wine can help you avoid a visit to your dentist as it is believed to fight cavities.

Researchers had previously discovered that red wine is also very beneficial for health as it contains resveratrol which is associated with beneficial health effects in ageing, inflammation and metabolism.

To prove this point, researchers grew cultures of bacteria responsible for dental diseases as a biofilm.

They dipped the biofilms for a couple of minutes in different liquids — red wine, red wine without the alcohol, red wine spiked with grape seed extract, and water and 12 percent ethanol — for comparison.

Cavities, periodontal disease and tooth loss affect an estimated 60 to 90 percent of the global population.

The problems start when certain bacteria in the mouth get together and form biofilms, which are communities of bacteria that are difficult to kill.

Research has suggested that polyphenols, grape seed extract and wine can slow bacterial growth, said the study that appeared in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.