Dear Dr. Ellie:
With respect to currently popular “Enamel Strengthening” Rinses, why do they use alcohol if it lowers the pH that much? Is that purpose outweighed by the increased acidity?
When reading about your take on toothpaste, it seems that the reasons you keep naming for liking the regular crest anti-cavity have more to do with what is wrong with the other popular products. Are there any factors in choosing that besides what it doesn’t include?
How do you feel about the scraping that comes along with biannual teeth cleaning? It seems very harsh to me, and because I take good care of my mouth it never seems to produce much. Is that scraping doing any damage?
Thank you!
-J
Dear J:
To answer your second question about toothpastes: My recommendations are based on years and years of “positive” and “negative” clinical assessment of patients. I did this by using interview techniques with each patient to figure out what oral care products they use. Then the ones that worked would be suggested to the people with negative outcomes and then we would trace these people over several more years. I only recommend the products that I have tracked over years and which work!
Retrospectively I think the Crest has benefits because of its silica content (never chalk) and I only recommend sodium fluoride (never stannous). People who have experienced SLS problems with other pastes, for some reason do not appear to get them with Regular paste Crest.
Scraping is never good on teeth particularly without a good reason. Everyone should be aware that any abrasion and scraping can remove the hardest layer of tooth enamel and also dig into any softened areas that are ready to repair themselves and remineralize.
Hope this helps,
Ellie
ellie@zellies.com
26 Corporate Woods
Rochester, NY 14623
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