I’ve had a number of people contact me asking the question, “What’s the big deal? Why should I spend extra hard earned money on ’specialty’ toothpaste when the other toothpaste does just fine and is recommended by my dentist?”
Recommended by your dentist??? Ask them what SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is and see what they say. For any dental practitioner, the ill effects of SLS is widely known. I know, you can brush your teeth 2000 times and nothing will happen… consider yourself lucky. Some people will go their entire lives and never have any side effect from SLS. That being said, some of us will brush our teeth with a toothpaste containing SLS and will suffer serious issues from it. I grew up getting canker sores in my mouth and never knew what caused them.. until one day I came across an article in a magazine outlining the serious side-effects of SLS. Even worse, my mother suffered severe canker sores for decades! There is a happy ending for us though, it’s been two years now since we both switched to a SLS free toothpaste and neither of us have gotten even one canker sore.
Have you ever had a canker sore in your mouth? Perhaps some irritations inside your mouth? There’s a good chance that SLS is to blame.
As I said previously in the article SLS Free Toothpaste, “concentrations as low as 0.5% could cause irritation and concentrations of 10-30% caused skin corrosion and severe irritation.” If you are female, the side-effects of using toothpaste with SLS in it is even worse than skin irritations.. “one of the main effects of sodium lauryl sulfate is to mimic the activity of the hormone Oestrogen. This has many health implications and may be responsible for a variety of health problems from PMS and Menopausal symptoms to dropping male fertility and increasing female cancers such as breast cancer, where oestrogen levels are known to be involved.”
Have I got your attention now? I’m not a massive protester or anything like that, but I’m passionate about my health. I’m also passionate about causes like this where the ill-effects of SLS are so widely documented however governments continue to allow it’s use in products. Even worse, it’s in our toothpaste, in our shampoo, in many of the products that we use on a daily basis (or multiple times per day) and they serve no purpose other than to make bubbles!
