Advice on Teeth Whitening Discussion Thread

System

tara, look at this one as I mentioned previosuly. I have looked at every toothpaste there is ingredients and eventually found this one. It is quite expensive (£6) but I love it. Smith, what do you tihnk?

http://www.mypure.co.uk/riddells-creek-b134/riddells-creek-organic-herbal-toothpaste-p111

Certified Organic Blend of Aloe Vera, Peppermint, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary & Sage Extracts, Purified Water, Sodium Bicarbonate, Organic Sugar Cane Ethanol, Calcium Carbonate, Xanthan Gum, Organic Coconut Extract, Orgnanic Soapwort Extract, Organic Stevia, Spearmint Essential Oil, Cinnamon Essential Oil, Organic Celtic Sea Salt, Olive Leaf Extract & Grapefruit Seed Extract, Myrrh Essential Oilrn

hightara

mmmmm youve certainly a point there toothsmith, i can get a little carried away when it comes to sweetners

thankyou berbastrike, nice find though as you say :eek:expensive,
i'll have a wee read at that one.

brook2jack

berbastrike wrote: »

tara, look at this one as I mentioned previosuly. I have looked at every toothpaste there is ingredients and

Certified Organic Blend of Aloe Vera, Peppermint, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary & Sage Extracts, Purified Water, Sodium Bicarbonate, Organic Sugar Cane Ethanol, Calcium Carbonate, Xanthan Gum, Organic Coconut Extract, Orgnanic Soapwort Extract, Organic Stevia, Spearmint Essential Oil, Cinnamon Essential Oil, Organic Celtic Sea Salt, Olive Leaf Extract & Grapefruit Seed Extract, Myrrh Essential Oilrn

Sounds lovely doesn't it? You might want to review your organic chemistry. Sugar cane ethanol is alcohol derived from sugar exactly as the sweetners that hightara wants to avoid are sugar alcohols. Stevia as a sweetner has also been controversial having been banned at points in the eu and us and has risks of its own.

Personally there is a large body of evidence that some sugar alcohols namely xylitol do an excellent job of preventing decay and when used in chewing gums may also help in reducing middle ear infections.

I agree with TS you can be too concerned about sweetners etc in toothpaste particularly as many "natural" brands have exactly the same ingredients but disguised .

Final point, the first ingredient listed therefore the one with the highest concentration is aloe vera. The one and only medical indication for its use is as a very very potent laxative, so you might want to be careful with how much you ingest!!

System

Interesteing brook2jack, thanks, I will research some of the things you have said. What I would say that I would much rather swallow some of healthy toothpaste than one from a supermarket - flouride, sls. I also hear glycerin forms a sticky film on teeth and prevents remineralisation. I like having peace of mind even if it costs £6.

brook2jack

You might also want to research xanthan gum and how and what it is manufactured from. It is by no means an organic or natural product. There can also be health concerns with it.

This is the essescence of what we are saying... People pay a premium for "natural" toothpastes believing they are paying for peace of mind. But many of the ingredients are not "natural" and many of the "natural" ingredients also have side effects, health concerns associated with them.

Whilst there is alot to be said for certain people avoiding sls containing toothpastes, the common ingredient in toothpaste that is next most likely to cause a health problem statistically is a commonly used natural flavouring used in many toothpastes..... Cinnamon!

Fluoride for me is the one essential in toothpaste , spit don't rinse to allow it to stay in contact with the teeth as long as possible and eat and drink sensibly.

Toothsmith

And the one that always makes me smile is 'sea salt'!

I notice that one has 'organic celtic sea salt'! With all the cr*p in the sea at the moment, all getting stirred around on a daily basis, how can any bit of sea be described as 'organic'?

To my mind - a land based salt mine where the salts from ancient (cleaner) dried up seas are found would be a much 'cleaner' sat?

Is it just me?

System

Toothsmith wrote: »

And the one that always makes me smile is 'sea salt'!

I notice that one has 'organic celtic sea salt'! With all the cr*p in the sea at the moment, all getting stirred around on a daily basis, how can any bit of sea be described as 'organic'?

To my mind - a land based salt mine where the salts from ancient (cleaner) dried up seas are found would be a much 'cleaner' sat?

Is it just me?

Not as bad as all the shiny packaging, "advanced whitening", "enamelock", "active micro cleansing crystals", "Whitening microparticles", "Dissolvable Cooling Crystals" crap found in the supermarket.

brook2jack

No one would disagree that one fluoride containing toothpaste is as good as another, other than sensitive type toothpastes which contain substances which, if used correctly, will help with sensitivity.

But a £6 tube of tooth paste which promises to be natural when it contains substances that are not, which promises peace of mind when it contains controversial sweetners, and which is "safer" but contains an ingredient which is the most likely toothpaste flavouring to cause adverse reactions (cinnamon) also has to be questioned.

System

Why is cinnamon bad?

brook2jack

The two ingredients in toothpaste most likely to contribute to sore mouth,apthous ulcers are sls (sodium lauryl sulphate) and cinnamon. So if you are avoiding toothpastes with sls you should definately avoid toothpastes with cinnamon. It is a very common ingredient in many things and many people are in addition allergic to cinnamon.

The point is you can find evidence to avoid anything you eat,drink, wash or medicate with. You are looking at a risk benefit ratio, just because something is "natural" doesn't mean to say it is safe or better than something "chemical".

Fluoride in toothpastes has decades of research to show it is effective against decay, "natural" toothpastes have hundreds of years of experience to show they don't work. From the minute we started eating honey etc humans have suffered and died because of decay. Since the advent in this country of fluoride toothpaste in the seventies and elsewhere in the world decay rates have fallen dramatically.