Good oral hygiene is important for everyone, especially for those with diabetes.
After learning of the toxic chemicals found in health care products and toothpastes from companies selling top brands, I decided to shop for a more natural and safe toothpaste. So off to the health food store to check out the ingredients in the various brands of the
Natural Products . I figured if it was natural ,it should be safe and would not contain harmful chemicals. I was looking in particular for a toothpaste that did not contain sodium lauryl sulfate.. Was I surprised! Many companies that claims to use natural safe ingredients were putting SLS in there toothpaste just like Colgate and Crest.
When I returned home I decided to do more research and check out the ingredient in various toothpaste brands on the internet.
We all know the active ingredient in toothpaste - typically it's sodium fluoride. But sodium fluoride makes up less than one percent of toothpaste ingredients. What's the other 99% of toothpaste made up of? If most of what goes into toothpaste is labelled as inactive ingredients, why are these chemicals there? What do they do? And what exactly am I putting in my mouth? Here are my findings.
Toothpaste Ingredients - Active Ingredients
The active ingredients are what help to protect and strengthen your teeth. However, different toothpastes contain different functions, and thus may have differing active ingredients. For example, while ordinary toothpaste may only contain sodium fluoride as an active ingredient, a tartar control toothpaste may also contain triclosan as an anti-gingivitis agent.
Sodium Flouride
A typical percentage of sodium fluoride found in toothpaste is .24%. Sodium fluoride is thought to strengthen teeth through the formation of flouroapatite, a component of tooth enamel. Besides toothpaste, sodium fluoride was used in the production of ceramics and rat poison .
Triclosan
Triclosan is a antibacterial and antifungal organic compound . Some studies have shown that the popular Microban treatment you can find embedded into any number of hard surfaces contains Triclosan. There are some health concerns regarding the use of Triclosan. The EPA registers it as a pesticide, giving it high scores as a risk to both human health and the environment. Reports have suggested that triclosan can combine with chlorine in tap water to form chloroform gas, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen.. As a result, triclosan was the target of a UK cancer alert, even though the study showed that the amount of chloroform generated was less than amounts often present in chlorinated drinking waters.
Toothpaste Ingredients - Inactive Ingredients
Hydrated Silica
This is the abrasive used to polish and scrub the surface of your teeth in gel toothpastes. If you dry out hydrated silica you get the common silica gel found inside pepperoni packages and electronics. Silica gel absorbs water, so it is placed in littel packets (coincidentally labelled, "Do Not Eat" inside packages of electronics and other items susceptible to damage from high humidity or water condensation . The water absorbing ability of silica gel also makes it a perfect ingredient for cat litter.
