Green tea is a decoction made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Unlike black tea, green tea is not oxidised during processing, and so green tea retains more of the original phytochemicals present in tea leaves. One chemical that is present in green tea in higher concentrations than black tea is a group of flavonoid chemicals called catechins. The high catechin concentration in green tea is thought to be responsible for many of the beneficial health effects from regularly drinking green tea. The catechins in green tea have been investigated for their antimicrobial effects. In this regard catechins are able to prevent the adherence of Streptococcus mutans to hydroxyapatite discs suggesting they may be beneficial to tooth health by reducing plaques. Further green tea catechins are also able to inhibit the glucosyltransferase enzyme in Streptococcus mutans bacteria, and this may inhibit the ability of the bacteria to synthesise sugars for its structure, thus causing growth inhibition.
Drinking green tea confers a number of health effects. One of the lesser known of these effects may be the inhibition of dental caries. Switching to green tea may therefore improve tooth health directly. If green tea is drunk in place of drinks with added sugar, there may also be indirect benefits as sugar is known to cause dental caries.
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