Oral Health
As mentioned in the previous above section, we feel that SLS, SLES, parabens, alcohol, propylene glycol and other undesirable ingredients should not be included in any products that people put on (or in) themselves. This includes any Oral Care products.
Toothpastes should be free of the above ingredients, and preferably be certified organic.
If you aim to keep your teeth for a lifetime, then click here to download a brochure on how to achieve this result.
There are some specific points to be made about certain oral care products.
Mouthwashes
These should have beneficial ingredients in them and no alcohol. Mouthwash should help clean the teeth and gums, reduce bacterial growth and offer some healing support to the soft tissues. Usually mouthwashes also freshen the breath, but this generally follows if there is a reduction in oral plaque and reduced bacterial numbers. Therefore it is essential for an effective mouthwash is to have antibacterial action and some healing properties.
It is important to realise that high alcohol consumption has been linked to oral cancer for many decades. This higher cancer incidence generally applied to older patients and the conclusion was that this is because of increased duration of exposure in older patients (over time). Therefore one wonders why some mouthwashes have high concentrations of alcohol added to them. More disturbing is that recent publications have reported that there is an increasing rate of oral cancer in younger patients (around 30 years of age) who do not drink spirits (or smoke) but do frequently gargle with mouthwashes with high concentrations of alcohol added.
It is my clinical opinion that mouthwashes should definitely not have alcohol as an included ingredient.
Toothpastes
Toothpaste should be without undesirable ingredients (like SLS, SLES, parabens, etc), but also need to be effective. Fluoride is a very effective, proven way to reduce dental decay and as such is desirable in toothpaste.
However fluoride is not desirable for some children (ie below the age of 6 years and in an area which has fluoride added to the drinking water supply) to use toothpaste with high fluoride concentration (because they sometimes swallow it and could end up with a little too much fluoride intake). Therefore it is often preferable that this category of children use toothpaste without undesirable ingredients (like SLS, etc) but also with no fluoride. However this does NOT apply to children in areas which do not have fluoride added to their drinking water. In this case, ingestion of some extra fluoride would be beneficial. If in doubt you should ask your dentist.
Having explained this, it is most advantageous that all people above the age of about 6 years old (irrespective of whether their drinking water has fluoride added to it or not) use toothpaste which has high fluoride content. It has been proven in many clinical trials that toothpaste with fluoride will reduce decay in teeth.
Nevertheless, it is understandable that some people are worried about adding fluoride to toothpaste because it is “not natural”. From a scientific point of view, it does not matter where the fluoride ions come from – you just need some fluoride ions to strengthen the teeth. However from an emotional point of view, many people feel more comfortable if high concentrations of fluoride ions were derived from natural sources and incorporated in certified organic toothpaste. Apart from knowing that the fluoride is derived from a natural source, the reality is that certified organic products are extremely well scrutinised during manufacture to ensure that only naturally derived ingredients are used but also nothing harmful is added to the products.
There are a significant number of patients who have a sensitivity to SLS, SLES, propylene glycol, etc. For these patients it is essential they use a toothpaste without irritant ingredients. But of course it is sensible, from a preventive point of view, that all people use toothpaste without these undesirable ingredients.
Having explained this, please click here to download more information about scientific facts about dental disease and how it affects teeth and their longevity.
Video Presentations
With special permission, we are able to provide you with YouTube information on a number of dental topics that almost certainly apply to you and your family. Please view these videos by clicking the links below.
How to Clean your Teeth (it’s not as easy as you might think)
Scientific Facts about Teeth and Gums
How to Help Temporo-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction and Pain – often called TMJ Dysfunction
