Veneers done at Alexandria Total Dentistry
Daniel Lee is at Alexandria Total Dentistry.
February 16, 2018 at 1:32 PM · Instagram ·
Veneers. In this case we used veneers to correct the color, shape, and the gingival contour (the way the gum line looks) of the smile. Top Picture (pre-op) Middle Picture (color selection) Bottom Picture 1 year follow up.
Recently I have been getting many questions about a new trend in dental care, activated charcoal toothpaste, that seems to have gotten a lot of publicity in social media. To be honest at first I wasn’t sure what to think of it and I sort of looked around to see if any of my peers had done any extensive research in this area. It seems no dental professional has taken the time to seriously research the matter. Maybe we are expecting this fad to just die off? It’s possible but I think it is time for me to attempt to answer this question.
So here’s my disclaimer: I do not have the cutting edge information on dentifrices. I do however have a fairly up to date dental degree and make the effort to attend dental conferences to make sure I have the relatively up-to-date information in the rapidly changing field of dental medicine. So I am applying all the knowledge I have gathered up to give you my unbiased opinion on that matter.
From what I know dentifrices do three very important things to protect your teeth.
The most important thing is fluoride delivery. Don’t believe me? Look at your toothpaste and check the ingredients. Oh wow lots of ingredients! Now check the active ingredients generally you will see a formulation of fluoride. When I go to dental conferences fluoride delivery is all the rage at the toothpaste informational stands. Everyone seems to be trying to figure out a new way to deliver more fluoride into the teeth. We will go into this more later.
They aid in physical/mechanical removal of plaque using an additive (the gritty feeling of the tooth paste)
They help restore the pH balance of our mouths to keep the teeth from demineralization or being eroded away by acid. This is probably the reason why you don’t have a lot of sour flavored toothpastes. The sour taste is generally created by acidic foods. You generally want to keep your mouth neutral or basic because if you don’t there is a critical number around 5.4 pH where the tooth begins to lose minerals and over a prolonged period of time it may be irreversible.
Now that you have some simple glossed over information about toothpastes, we are ready judge this new fad... or at least try. The activated charcoal toothpaste would theoretically be able to meet criteria 2 (an abrasive additive that aids in mechanical removal of plaque) and 3 (restoration of the pH to neutral). The area that is alarming to me as a classically trained dentist is the fact that these pastes do not have fluoride. Fluoride is one of the greatest tools fighting and preventing tooth decay. The mechanism of action can be found here https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/professional-education/ce-courses/ce410/fluoride-s-mechanism-of-action. That link is for all my chemistry lovers out there. Now for the rest of my readers the watered down version is that when fluoride is introduced to the tooth, the tooth will grab onto some of the fluoride which in turn will replace a different ion(OH) in the tooth. This action actually makes the tooth more resistant to decay because the fluoride ions bind very tightly to the tooth and this is how it is able to resist acid insults more effectively. There is also relatively new information that suggests fluoride actually interferes with the way the cavity causing bacteria can process its primary food source. So without these benefits it’s hard for me to say that this toothpaste craze is anything more than a fad. Unless real hard evidence comes out I suggest sticking to the tried and true toothpastes of the past. I can’t imagine activated charcoal is harmful to you. It may have some actual benefits but at this point in time do not ditch your traditional toothpaste. If you can't resist the temptation to try the new charcoal paste by all means add it into an after lunch time routine but currently there is not enough evidence out there to replace a morning or nighttime brushing. I would even be hesitant to suggest using it immediately before or after brushing with regular toothpaste my rationale for this is that the activated charcoal may scoop up and bind the fluoride from your traditional paste and affect the amount delivered to your teeth.
In conclusion: Hold off of switching to activated charcoal until there are further studies done on this.
Thanks for reading feel free to comment or ask me any further questions and don’t forget to leave a LIKE.
-Daniel Lee DMD
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