Your periodontist helps you keep your gums healthy, resulting in a healthier smile. While seeing oral health specialists helps to keep your mouth healthy, you also need to take your oral health into your own hands by eating a nutritious diet. What you eat has a dramatic effect on the health of your oral tissues and your immune system's ability to fight off infections. Eating a balanced diet allows you to get necessary nutrients such as vitamin C. Meal planning can seem tedious, so you can start small by looking at what you drink on a daily basis and start to expand your assessment from there. Here are three healthy beverages that boost your periodontal health.

Cranberry juice

Cranberries have compounds that help act on behalf of your oral health. The polyphenols in cranberries help to prevent glucan from forming, which in turn helps to reduce the amount of plaque that damages your gums. Dental plaque contributes to gum disease by irritating the gums and causing inflammation, leading to diseases such as gingivitis. Be careful when buying cranberry juice at the grocery store. Many cranberry cocktails are sweetened with damaging artificial sweeteners. It is best to buy 100% cranberry juice and to dilute it with water to cut its acidic elements, which can also damage your teeth.

Green tea

The American Academy of Periodontology recommends drinking green tea to boost your periodontal health. A study shows that green tea is full of the antioxidant cathechin, which works to reduce inflammation. Catechin may be the compound responsible for reducing the hallmark symptoms of gingivitis. Further, those in the study who drank green tea daily reported a reduction of bleeding of the gums upon probing, inflammation of the tissue, and looseness of gum tissue. Those who were not in the green tea group unfortunately reported the opposite.

Orange juice

Vitamin C plays a big role in boosting your immune system. It turns out that having high concentrations of vitamin C in your bloodstream helps to ward off periodontitis. In a study, lower levels of vitamin C in the bloodstream meant that there were higher levels of the bacteria that causes gingivitis, not only in the mouth, but also throughout the bloodstream. You can get plenty of vitamin C in 100% orange juice from the store. If oranges are not to your taste, you can also try drinking juices made from other citrus fruits, such as lemons, limes, and grapefruits.

For more information, contact Hurst Family Dental or a similar location.