Cocoa To Fight Tooth Decay
Thursday 24th May 2007 Cocoa To Fight Tooth Decay www.smileon.com
Researchers from Tulane University in America have discovered that
cocoa powder contains an extract which may be more effective than
fluoride in fighting cavities and protecting dental health.
The extract, a white crystalline powder whose chemical makeup is
similar to caffeine, helps harden teeth enamel, making users less
susceptible to tooth decay. The cocoa extract could offer the first
major innovation to commercial toothpaste since manufacturers began
adding fluoride to toothpaste in 1914.
Proven effective in the animal model, it will probably be another
two to four years before the product is approved for human use and
available for sale, lead researcher Arman Sadeghpour says. But he
has already created a prototype of peppermint flavored toothpaste
with the cavity-fighting cocoa extract added, and his doctoral
thesis research compared the extract side by side to fluoride on the
enamel surface of human teeth.