Kombucha and Your Dental Health

Just earlier this morning I was texting my cousin about my morning drink of choice: kombucha. He responded to me with “Kombucha?”, which sort of surprised me that he had never heard of it. Considering he’s a health freak, I was a bit taken aback.

Kombucha, for all of you who aren’t aware, is basically fermented tea. A yeast culture is placed in black or green tea and aged, which ferments the tea and adds tons of beneficial bacteria to the drink. If you’ve never tried it, it tastes quite sour and can be a punch in the face because of its acidity (but like, a good punch in the face).

The main benefits that kombucha can offer you are healthy gut bacteria and detoxifying your body. I won’t say that the drink can overhaul your health in just one sitting, but drinking a little bit on a daily basis can be a great thing.

Oftentimes, people spread some misinformation about kombucha being “unhealthy” for you if you drink too much. The biggest reason it may be unhealthy stems from its sourcing. If you’re trying your own homebrew kombucha and you aren’t working in a sterile environment, then the bacteria present in the kombucha may actually become pathogens that are bad for you. This isn’t a matter of the drink being bad. Rather, it’s the brewer doing things wrong and not completely sterile. Just the same, it gets a bad reputation for having “a lot of sugar.” Well, if you’re worried about that, lowering your sugar intake from other things is advised.

As for how kombucha interacts with your dental health, it’s kind of like drinking fruit juice (especially that of citruses): the acidity and sugar levels aren’t good for your teeth if you don’t attempt to wash them with water after finished.

But if you clean your teeth properly and drink water after drinking the juice (and kombucha), you’re fine. The sugars won’t stick to your teeth, and the acid won’t have a chance to eat away at enamel. This is basic logic, honestly, so anytime I hear someone spread this sort of “warning” about kombucha, I like to say “Well no duh. It’s the same as orange juice!” Because, in all reality, it is. It’s a no brainer to wash your teeth off after drinking highly acidic things, isn’t it? All it takes is a few drinks of water to truly scrub the majority of the sugars and acid away.