If you read the title of this article and began to immediately pour yourself a glass of cabernet, there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that red wine offers a host of potential health benefits, including keeping the brain young, promoting hormonal health and preventing heart disease. Recently, scientists from the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid found that exposure to compounds found in red wine can also help prevent bacteria from sticking to your gums. This bacteria, if left in your mouth, is directly responsible for plaque and tooth decay.

The compounds the researchers studied are called polyphenols and they can also be found in things like coffee, cranberry juice and other kinds of berries.

Despite the promising findings, you shouldn’t start looking for wine flavored toothpaste just yet. The chemicals used in the study were much more concentrated than they would be in wine and the exposure times lasted up to 47 hours. You may have more pressing concerns if you are able to drink for that amount of time.

Instead, the research done is a preliminary look into how these compounds might be used in the future as preventative medicines that would fight against oral diseases. For now, make sure you stick to regularly scheduled appointments with our North Carolina Periodontist to keep your oral health in great shape. Contact Tar Heel Periodontics and Implant Dentistry today to schedule your next appointment.