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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

How Harsh is YOUR Toothpaste?


Do you have any idea just how harsh toothpaste is?

In my quest to find the best natural products for my family, I have found out JUST how harsh my toothpaste was.

Do you think it's kind of scary all the bleaching and whitening products out there? I had never really thought of it but decided to begin researching the ingredients in toothpaste.

Many toothpaste and mouth cleaning agents contain very harmful ingredients that get into your blood stream and can build up and even destroy your liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and tissues.

According to OraMD, here are just a few ingredients used in the leading toothpaste that can be dangerous:

  • Hydrated silica is made from a crystallized compound found in quartz, sand, and flint and is primarily used as an abrasive in toothpaste.
  • Sorbitol and sodium saccharin are both sweeteners and used as carriers and sweeteners in toothpaste.
  • Titanium dioxide is a pigment used for providing brightness and whiteness to such products as paint, plastics, paper, inks, fibers, food, and cosmetics; and is used as a stain remover/whitener in toothpaste.
  • Glycerin is a syrupy, sweet, colorless or yellowish liquid obtained from fats and oils and used as a solvent, antifreeze, plasticizer, and sweetener in the manufacture of dynamite, cosmetics, liquid soaps, inks, and lubricants. Glycerin prevents toothpaste from drying out and helps maintain product consistency.
  • Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a powerful surfactant (wetting agents) and detergent. It has industrial and cosmetic uses and is used around the world in clinically studies as a skin irritant. The molecule is small enough to penetrate the skin and can enter the blood stream being carried to every organ of the body. SLS is used in toothpaste as a foaming and cleansing agent.
  • Sodium fluoride is a colorless crystalline salt used in fluoridation of water, in treatment of tooth decay, and as an insecticide and disinfectant. Sodium fluoride is used in toothpaste to harden the enamel of the teeth to prevent tooth decay. (Sodium fluoride is also one of the main ingredients in rat poison.)
After researching toothpaste, I decided that I wanted to go to a more natural and organic type of toothpaste. I was then faced with the dilemma of what to do with all the extra toothpaste from around the house.

I can now tell you that without a doubt in my mind, toothpaste is extremely harsh. My mother-in-law recommended using it to clean. There were some hard water stains in our shower grout which the professional cleaners could not get out when we moved in. I had tried EVERY other shower cleaner out there.

So... Why not try the toothpaste?

In seconds, my grout was bleached back to white. Andy came home and couldn't believe it. He didn't even know the grout was that color!

With all the harsh cleaners I had used, CLR and KaBoom was just a couple, the toothpaste that I was putting in my child's mouth cleaned it off in seconds!

Don't believe me? Try it with your toothpaste. You will be amazed!!

2 comments:

MrsKBJ said...

I like Toms of Maine. Burts Bees is good too!

Courtney said...

We were testers for Tooth Soap(http://www.etsy.com/shop/roseofsharonacres?section_id=5087674). It took a while to get used to it and back when she was testing, she didn't use the Xylitol so it tasted like you were washing your mouth out with soap. When I got pregnant with Elle I stopped using it because it made me gag and throw up. I'd be curious to try it now that she's been doing it for a couple years.

The kids use Flouride-free Tom's(Don't even get me started on the toxicity of flouride. I still can't believe that people DRINK it!). Chris and I use Crest. *blush*