Gentle Dentistry

Everything is bad for you now. Meat. Potatoes. Gravy. Bacon. Bread. Butter. Ham. Eggs. Salt. Sugar. Buttertarts (sigh)
But toothpaste? Yep.
According to clinical studies, Toothpaste abuse is rampant and is the leading cause of tooth sensitivity, tooth discolouration and excessive wear and tear on teeth.

People are brushing way too often and way too vigourously, and using way too much toothpaste, the researchers conclude. You're supposed to only use a little dab of it. And that only twice a day. But most people line it up all along the brush and go at it much too often and much too forcefully.

You have to remember exactly

what toothpaste is -- it's a polishing compound. I used to work in an eyeglass factory and we ground eyeglass lenses with stuff like toothpaste. I use similar stuff to polish chrome on my Harley.

Both compounds are exactly like toothpaste -- grit suspended in goop.

In fact, many websites suggest other places you can use toothpaste to good effect, like polishing metal, cleaning up stains on carpet, on clothes and on shoes or cleaning your metal watchband or jewelry. So it's not gentle stuff at all.

It's actually like putting sandpaper in your mouth. And the more you use it, the more it sands the enamel right off your teeth.

Apparently, people are now so obsessed with having super white teeth that they brush harder than necessary with too much toothpaste. This wears away tooth enamel. The inner dentine, which is darker in colour, is then closer to the surface. So the teeth look dingy. So people brush more often and even harder and use even more toothpaste. Which makes things even worse.

OK then, what if you don't use toothpaste at all? I asked a few dentists and they all said, "Well, you need the fluoride."

Source: The Sun Times
by: Dennis Thompset