Did You Know That Too Much Denture Cream Can Make You Sick?

Posted by Kathy Quan Feb 3, 2009

There are 35 million Americans who wear dentures. How many of them fit well? And if you lose or gain a little weight, they can stop fitting well. So how do you fix the rubbing and the slipping? Use a lot more denture cream? Did you know that can be dangerous?

The FDA has had a hard time doing its job over that past years because of a political climate that didn't believe in funding their programs. (Without funding, how can you do your job?) So here we are again faced with an issue like peanut butter being recalled for salmonella. How insane is that? The latest news on this is that a sister plant of PCA in Texas was never even inspected at all!

In areas where we think we are protected, we aren't. Something as simple as denture adhesive cream is not required to have the ingredients listed on the label. So how do we know what's in it? Well we trust that the company who produces it might tell us, but they don't have to.

And all those people whose dentures rub and slip and fall out when they eat things like corn on the cob and apples think they can solve the problem by using more and more of the adhesive. Makes sense doesn't it? But how safe is it? Apparently, if you use the normal amount, it's pretty safe, but if you use a lot to fix dentures that don't fit right, you could become sick from it. And how do we know this?

A few weeks ago I was discussing some issues with Eric Chaffin, Esq. one of the partners in a consumer advocacy firm. He enlightened me to the fact that denture cream has been shown to cause neuropathy in a number of patients because of the zinc these adhesives contain. I did some research and have written a new article about the effects of zinc and denture adhesive cream: Neuropathy From Zinc in Denture Creams.

As a nurse, Do No Harm is a motto that is near and dear to my heart. You think something as benign sounding as denture cream would be safe, and if it isn't that the manufacturers would do the right thing and let the public in on it. Apparently that isn't happening. And they don't have to. So consumer advocate attorneys are filing lawsuits to force them to take some responsibility for their product and not telling the public about these issues.

If you have dentures and they don't fit right, see your dentist, please. Don't try to fix the problem with more adhesive and subject yourself to health issues.