Wait…US is still doing research?!
So that’s why there is a warning on the label about swallowing toothpaste.
I’m 40% lead and other metals! *klongk klongk*
So I’m all for substances to be routinely measured for lead concentration. I wouldn’t be surprised if lead and fascism have a link.
But, because of leaded gasoline and widespread use of lead in other products historically we cannot escape 0 lead.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you took a plate of food from a randomized selection of restaurants, you would find lead in every meal.
Lead is dense, and leaded gasoline absolutely fucked our planet. We know the safe level is 0.
We cannot say that any measurement of non-zero is worse than what we can ultimately control for. We need to be measuring these things over decades, to verify the amount continues to decrease with the ultimate hope of 0 (though, that’s unlikely).
Finally a benefit to not brushing my teeth! My ADHD finally gets a win!
/s
Now hold still as I apply this giant drill to Number Whatever.
My uncle always used to say that his goal in life is to have all his teeth replaced with implants.
He died at 51 from a heart attack.
I have a single implant. One. I fucking hate it. Not to speak of the dentist because he’s fantastic, but the structure of the things drives me nuts.
If anyone’s unaware, they don’t go into the socket like a normal tooth. There’s an anchor, but they’re kinda T-shaped and leave a miniscule gap between the “tooth” and the gum. SO MUCH SHIT GETS TRAPPED IN THERE! I carry metal toothpicks with me everywhere (“weapons” according to every security guy ever) because I constantly have to dig shit out.
There’s other problems too, but that’s the most annoying one.
Hmm. I also have one but it’s the opposite experience for me. Getting the old tooth yanked out and then the drilling into the upper jaw was a weird experience. But I really can’t complain, I actually use that as the dominant ripping and chewing side now.
I don’t dispute her lead findings, but her statement about Hydroxyapatite shows she’s willing to give comment on things she knows nothing about.
Hydroxyapatite is extracted from cow bone and added because it allegedly helps teeth absorb calcium, though Rubin said she doubts it does.
Hydroxyapatite is used as an alternative to flouride, as it’s able to attach to the enamal and act as a barrier similar to how flouride does.
Research has shown it’s less effective than flouride overall (it can’t withstand as low a pH/acidity before dissolving), but it’s not added to increase calcium absorption, like she claims.
Hydroxyapatite is basically bone without the last calcium ion, which is calcium apatite
Hydroxyapatite is present in bones and teeth; bone is made primarily of HA crystals interspersed in a collagen matrix—65 to 70% of the mass of bone is HA. Similarly HA is 70 to 80% of the mass of dentin and enamel in teeth.
I think you may want to reconsider, it might not be used for calcium absorbtion (that’s via preferential binding and transport pathways in the gut lumen), the apatite is absorbed by the collagen matrix for the outer coating, effectively regenerating the tooth.
Flouride is a stronger, but worse version of this (strengthing apatite without the Ca++ ion), though both together could theoretically be optimal, I don’t know of any studies looking into this, and we should be wary of making such claims barring evidence.
I’m not suggesting hydroxyapetite is without merit for dental purposes, it absolutely is useful, and I agree combining it with flouride would likely be optimal (I recall reading a study that seemed to suggest HA can actually remineralize deeper into the tooth than flouride can).
I was just pointing out that the woman in the article didn’t seem to know what hydroxyapetite is actually used for, despite trying to seem like a source of knowledge.
I don’t know the woman, I’m just against improper use of science.
Most of the Flouride studies are a century old, I consider all medicine of that era to be effectively meaningless.
Let’s do some new studies and put this stupid shit to bed.
Id love studies with apetite and fluoride combined, I’d also like to see the efficacy of Flouride mouthwash and toothpaste vs in water, no reason to treat systemically if we can treat topically.
We’re practicing voodoo medicine based on tradition, let’s see if we can come up with something even better now that we’re not illiterate morons.
There are many recent studies on the efficacy of flouride, both mouth rinse and paste from the last two decades, as well as studies on the efficacy of essential oil rinses (Listerine) and stabilized chlorine (Closys).
There have been developments in flouride compositions as well, such as Stannus flouride, which has been fully stabilized and no longer stains the teeth like it once did. It brings with it advantages over the older Sodium Flouride, such as better resilience against low pH, reduction of temperature sensitivity from its ability to fill in the microtubules of the teeth, and an antibacterial effect from being stabilized to zinc, which remains on the teeth and kills caries causing bacteria for many hours after use.
I highly disagree that science is not advancing regarding dental solutions, we are very much not playing with voodoo. I would suggest instead that advancements in dental technology and science is not pushed harder due to financial interests, as wide adoption would drastically reduce the income of dentists. It’s capitalism, basically.
To give a highly encapsulated version of an ideal dental regimen based on modern science, it would be thus:
- Begin with a small rinse of Closys, which is effective at penetrating biofilm in the mouth, and raises the pH of the mouth to protect the teeth from abrasion for the next step (teeth enamel becomes softened in an acidic environment).
- Brush with a Stannus flouride toothpaste. The action of brushing itself even without toothpaste is beneficial, as it mechanically disturbs the colonies of bacteria on the teeth, which mouthwash alone cannot achieve. Leave the toothpaste on for a couple minutes if possible.
- Without rinsing with water, spit out the remaining toothpaste and begin a rinse of classic Listerine (or off brand). The essential oils will finish off all the bacteria that the brushing dislodged, as well as get between the teeth to act as a liquid flossing.
- Finish, again without rinsing with water, with a standard ACT mouth rinse (or off-brand).
This last step is is important for a few reasons.
- First, it is a high pH, and will neutralize the acidic nature of the Listerine.
- Second, it rinses out the alcohol of the Listerine, which if left in would have a detrimental effect on saliva production and dry mouth, which prevents the teeth from remineralizing from the phosphorous and minerals in your saliva.
- Third, it introduces yet another source of flouride after the acidity of the Listerine etches the enamel, which strangely increases the absorption of the flouride (flouride is most effective in an acidic environment, but that can only be taken advantage of with a liquid, as the brush would be harmful in that environment).
- Fourth, the ACT type rinse contains another antibacterial (cetylpyridinium chloride) that studies have shown stick to the enamel, killing yet more caries creating bacteria.
If this protocol is followed diligently twice a day, you will effectively entirely prevent caries causing bacteria from being able to proliferate enough to actually cause plaque buildup whatsoever, and you will likely never get another cavity for the rest of your life. Especially if combined with xylitol mints after meals, which caries causing bacteria uptake thinking it’s a sugar they can digest and use as fuel, but in fact cannot be, causing them to die. It also promotes saliva production, which increases pH and flushes the teeth with minerals.
Lastly, the reason we treat water with flouride is for the sake of those unable to afford access to, or proper knowledge of, flouride containing dental products as described above. If everyone did the above protocol, there would be no need to fluoridate water, but as that is unlikely, water fluoridation is a compromise.
Tamara Rubin is a grifter with no expertise who bought an XRF gun to use to scan random objects as fodder for her blog where she gets money from affiliate links. Her wikipedia page talks about a few of her financial crimes. I wouldn’t worry anything she puts out.
I can’t tell from the article if there’s a real problem. None of the levels exceed FDA thresholds, and it sounds bad, but there’s also no definite claim of harm.
Yeah, I wish we had a list of stuff that does the most harm to people so we could address those problems from the top down.
The tooth has spoken
[Facepalm]
I posted this in total ignorance of my name.
lol I’m sorry I just couldn’t resist.
I was tempted to go for
The tooth has spoken the truth.
or even
The tooth has spoken the twooth
Is this a secondary account for Duke Atreides or Dr Yueh?
Yes Leto I’ve betrayed and effectively killed you, but the tooth! Be sure not to brush with hydroxyapatite and stick to melange based paste.
I mean, dying seems to do a lot of harm, we should work on that first
Good point. What’re the leading causes of death?
Dying, for one. I always tell people, ‘just don’t die’, but nobody listens to me…
That sounds like a disturbing correlation centered around you.
Cars, heart disease, and guns in the USA. If I recall correctly.
Maybe we should work on mitigating those risks first, then.
The highest levels detected violated the state of Washington’s limits
https://tamararubin.com/about/
Tamara Rubin is an internationally recognized, multiple federal award-winning Lead-poisoning prevention advocate, documentary filmmaker, and mother of four sons (ages 26, 20, 17, and 14). She took on the cause of childhood Lead poisoning and consumer goods safety advocacy after her sons were acutely Lead poisoned by the work of a painting contractor in 2005. Tamara lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two youngest sons (who each have permanent disabilities from Lead exposure as infants).
She does this work specifically because it can cause permanent harm. Her family literally are victims of it.
Also, as the article notes, Washington State has much stricter standards than the Federal government.
More on Rubin:
If her youngest sons with permanent lead exposure injuries were 14 and 17 in 2023, and the lead exposure event took place in 2005, when her older children were young, some of the math isn’t mathing for me.
When it comes to lead, there is no “safe” level of lead in ones body. I think the reason the FDA has a limit is because we know it’s everywhere, so having a standard limit lower than where the average person may begin to see noticeable side-effects is important. Although, as everyone’s body chemistry varies, what is “safe/tolerable” for one individual may not be for another.
Lead is also one of those things that from research I have read affects children to the greatest degree while their little brains are growing. In children it can cause things like aggression, learning disabilities, and slow growth and development amongst other things.
Also this is only one source of lead children (or any of us) may be absorbing, which would make you wonder about a compounding affect when looked at in aggregate. We know it’s in a LOT of chocolate, spices (cinnamon being the current one doing kids in), toys, and environmental things like paint in places like old homes and schools (read a story not long ago about a kid they figured out was being poisoned from lead paint dust on a windowsill at school).
The max thresholds don’t mean it’s fine if it’s lower, just that at some point it becomes difficult to both detect the presence of things and there’s a limit on how much can be prevented. If we were progressing in time correctly we should be lowering these maximum levels both in the ability of detection and in the beginning sources. Especially in cases like this where either the metals are being added or are part of specific ingredients that would cost more to process and remove the metals.
And wow, they said Washington State was lower than the FDA, but that’s a magnitude less! Good job, Washington!
Per the FDA, there is no known safe amount of lead exposure. If it’s in something you want to minimize your exposure to it.
The article told you. There is NO safe level of lead. The legal limits are not appropriate for health.
Low level mass lead poisoning makes the world make a lot more sense now.
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Don’t worry, we’ll just cut the FDA funding and stop testing… problem goes away just like that
Just like COVID testing in 2020!
Is there a list I can search?
The tamaraRubin site is challenging.
I think in 100 years our ancestors will find it barbaric that we scrapped our teeth with metal tools and used abrasives to keep them clean instead of having bioengineered bacteria just keep our mouths clean.
We tend to find older practices barbaric because they were unscientific and didn’t work, not because they became obsolete due to better technology. Like, lobotomies and shock therapy are barbaric and that has nothing to do with our technology being better. They were just stupid scams.
Is toothpaste a stupid scam?
Obviously not, but lead contamination kinda is. This shit happens because of cost cutting.
That’s why I don’t brush my teeth - because the government says to.
I found Dale Gri- I mean Rusty Shackleford
Please stop pushing this person’s blog. Her claims have not been independently verified. It’s shameful that the guardian has amplified this nonsense without scientific proof.
Seems to be a lot of kids toothpaste on that list
Probably because the bulk of the products tested were likely kids toothpastes.
Lead Safe Mama community members nominate products for laboratory testing and then the LSM community uses crowd-funding (including through GoFundMe) to raise the funds to cover the costs related to testing and reporting of these nominated products. This is how the toothpaste and tooth powder products listed in the chart below were chosen for testing, and how the testing and reporting was paid for.
Ah, I see. Appreciate the clarification
What the actual fuck. “Oh it’s fine. Just a little arsenic and mercury.”
It’s nonsense from a blogger who claims they know how to test for lead. I wouldn’t worry about it too much unless an independent lab confirms her findings. So far that hasn’t happened.
