Yakult Gives You Something to Smile About

Other than giving us a nice bright smile, teeth are also crucial to our overall health. Without healthy teeth, the variety of foods that we can eat may be severely reduced, as well as having an impact on our self esteem if our appearance is changed due to missing teeth. Dental diseases are easily prevented through good and consistent oral cleaning habits, however there is still around 1 in 4 Australians thought to have untreated dental decay!

Tooth decay happens when acids in our mouths eat away at the protective tooth enamel. This acid is made when bacteria living in our mouth breaks down the carbohydrates from the foods we eat. When the carbohydrates and acid are left in our mouths for long periods, for example when we don’t brush our teeth regularly, the acid breaks down the enamel causing small holes (known as cavities) in our teeth.

There are certain types of bacteria found in our mouths that are more likely to cause decay than others. It is important to properly brush our teeth twice a day to make sure acids produced by this bacteria isn’t in our mouths for long enough to cause decay, however, there may also be other ways to help prevent this decay from happening.

Where does Yakult fit into this?

There have been studies done with the unique Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) strain found in Yakult to see what its effect is on the bacteria in our mouths. These studies found that LcS both reduced the amount of potentially harmful bacteria as well as increased bacteria that has been found to potentially protect our teeth against decay.

Another benefit found was that after continued Yakult drinking, people’s mouths became less acidic and were acidic for a shorter time after eating. This means that there is a lower chance for that acid to wear away the protective enamel on our teeth!

To make sure we keep our teeth healthy for as long as possible, we should be brushing and flossing twice a day, and keeping up our daily Yakult!