A dental hygienist’s blog about potentially harmful microbeads went viral. Crest has promised to remove the plastic beads, though maintains that they’re up to ADA standards.
Dental hygienist Trish Walraven noticed something familiar in toothpaste her daughter picked out at the store. It contained little blue microbeads that she had been seeing stuck in the gumlines of her patients at her dental practice.
She posted a blog entry to her site, Dental Buzz, warning readers to avoid Crest Pro Health toothpaste, since she believes that the microbeads, which are made of a polyethane plastic, are getting stuck in people's gums and leading to gum health issues.
"I've been seeing these blue particles flush out of patients' gums for several months now," she wrote. "So has the co-hygienist in our office. So have many dental hygienists throughout the United States and Canada who have consulted with each other and realized that we have a major concern on our hands."