Raena Morgan: Hello, I'm visiting with Matt Stigen of Peelu Products Limited. Matt, could you tell us some of the detriments of using commercial toothpaste?
Matt Stigen: Yes, some of the biggest detriments would be that there are a lot of abrasives in the commercial toothpaste. And, usually those abrasives come in 3 forms which are silica, bone or chalk.
One of the main problems with these abrasives is it does remove the enamel of the teeth. Enamel is a hard outer coating, or shell of the tooth, and it's actually white in color. And, as these abrasives are used for years, the enamel is stripped away which exposes the dentin beneath the enamel.
Raena Morgan: Is that what the yellowing comes from?
Matt Stigen: Exactly. That is one of the biggest detriments. Another detriment would be a lot of chemicals. There's two main chemicals that I personally have a problem with. There's fluoride.
Raena Morgan: I was wondering about fluoride, right.
Matt Stigen: There's a reason there's a warning label on most commercial brand toothpaste, do not swallow. Another one is sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS, and that has been shown to cause canker sores in the mouth.
Raena Morgan: Really?
Matt Stigen: Yeah, It's a foaming agent and an ingredient in most commercial brand toothpastes.
Raena Morgan: So, this is something you don't want your children swallowing?
Matt Stigen: Exactly. I have a two-and-a-half year old daughter running around. I would not want her to grab a commercial toothpaste and swallow any of that. Because of all these ingredients that are harmful, fluoride, sodium lauryl sulfate, among other things, I always stress the importance of looking for a natural alternative.
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