Dangers of sparkly toothpaste

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A Houston-area dentist encourages everyone to check the ingredients in their toothpaste tubes. Products with microbeads are being phased out, but they're still available at stores. 

"It's still on the market, though Crest says they're taking it off, so I think you're seeing the remnants of what's left in the stores," says Dr. Spiker Davis. "Crest has FDA approval, so they're not in a big hurry to take it off the market.  What concerns me is those little beads. Why they put them in there, is it sparkles so it sells more. The sparkle is OK, but it's polypropylene. Personally, I don't want my kids or myself to have polypropylene in my mouth and swallow it. We see it almost everyday -- they brush real good before they come to the dentist and get they're teeth cleaned and they come and open up and have little blue beads everywhere."

"But when they come in here for a cleaning, right up next to the gums. we see lots of little blue particles," adds Dr. Davis. "Those are chemicals shown to be dangerous to our health. It's plastic, and who wants to swallow plastic, especially kids who are developing and maturing. If it's getting stuck in your teeth, you do swallow it. 

Dr. Davis also explains that it it is in our water supply. The ingredient Dr. Davis highly suggests you avoid ingesting is polypropylene. 

"As far as I'm concerned, anything that looks sparkly, forget it!," says Dr. Davis. "Don't put it in your mouth." exclaims Dr. Davis.

For more information about this topic, visit http://www.cosmeticdentistshouston.com/.