Does Your Dental Floss Contain Cancer-causing Chemicals?

You’ve always heard your dentist, or orthodontist repeat the same mantra, time and time again.

Brush and floss every night before you go to bed.

Most of us get the brushing part, but few people floss their teeth as much as they should.

Flossing cleans the bacteria out from between your teeth, an often neglected, and much needed, part of our hygiene.

You might be flossing every night, but have you ever stopped to wonder what’s in your dental floss?

What’s in your dental floss?

So flossing is good, right? Well, it depends on what kind of floss you’re using.

Not all floss is created equal. In order to achieve that nice, smooth glide that you associate with floss, some companies use non-stick coating on the outside of floss.

Yes, sometimes even the same non-stick coating on your pans, Teflon.

Your mouth is a mucus membrane, and that means that chemicals in your mouth are directly absorbed, and at an especially high rate compared to anywhere else on your body.

Dangerous chemicals are the last thing you want in your mouth, it’s direct exposure to the rest of your bloodstream. And once these compounds are in, they’re not coming out very easily.

You might be thinking “I cook with non-stick cookware all the time, what’s the issue?”

Well, it’s not exactly the same thing.

The substance that floss is coated in comes off easily, and is absorbed into your bloodstream readily. All these non-stick materials contain something called a “perfluorinated compound”, or “PFC” for short.

The EPA has classified PFCs as “likely carcinogens”.

While most of the time PFCs are found in things that won’t be absorbed by your body, such as, water-proof clothing, water-repellant carpet, and so on; dental floss is one of the few things with these chemicals that you put inside your mouth.

While most people aren’t swallowing dental floss on the daily, it can still flake, break off, and release chemicals regardless. The introduction of PFCs into your bloodstream should be avoided at all costs.

The list of carcinogenic effects associated with PFCs is quite a long one.

Studies have demonstrated increased exposure to PFCs correlating with:

• Thyroid disease
• Significant increase in cholesterol levels
• Kidney cancer
• Breast cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Reduced fertility
• Ulcerative colitis
• Birth defects

And this is just what has been found out so far, the effects could be much further reaching than just that. One specific PFC, called “perfluoroctanoic acid”, was generally seen as safe, until a recent study by Emory University.

Over ten percent of people who regularly drank from water supplies contaminated with perfluoroctanoic acid, had readily apparent thyroid problems.

This is much, much higher than the average rate of thyroid problems in developed countries.

An especially big problem with this chemical, is it’s non-reactive. It won’t break down once it’s in your bloodstream very easily, so your only choice is to minimize exposure to it.

Many studies have been conducted on the biodegradability of these compounds, and the outcomes do not look good.

While the EPA recognized some of these as chemicals, big dental floss companies play what I like to call a “toxic whack-a-mole game”, where they introduce new substances that are really just a new coat of paint, on an old toxic chemicals.

These “new and improved” perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, are the replacement for the Teflon based non-stick coatings that were getting big companies in trouble with the EPA and FDA.

And as you can already guess, they were absolutely no different than the previous dangerous chemicals!

PFAS has been shown in research to be associated with:

• Ulcerative colitis
• Hypothyroidism
• Increased levels of cholesterol
• Birth defects
• Kidney cancer
• Testicular cancer

A PFC Free Alternative

Are you started to see a pattern here? Almost all of these symptoms match directly up with the previous chemicals that were used in dental floss.

There’s no real “cure”, so to speak, for exposure to these toxic chemicals.

The best you can do is minimize your exposure to them. If you’re already feeling the effects of these chemicals, there’s no reason to expose yourself to more of them. Here’s how you can minimize your exposure.

Stop using PFC coated floss immediately

Manufactures don’t have to label their products as containing these chemicals, so how are you supposed to know what to use?

Well, there are some alternatives. If you want to continue using your floss, contact the company that makes your floss.

Ask them if the floss is prepared using these above-mentioned chemicals, and be sure to be thorough in your questioning.

Your health is definitely worth a few minutes on the phone.

Switch to non-PFC contaminated floss

Although almost all big name floss producers are going to use these chemicals, there are some smaller companies out there that do not use these chemicals in production.

Here are some of the natural brands to check out, specifically created to not contain any PFCs or PFOAs in their production.

• Tom’s of Maine Spearmint Floss
• Eco-Dent Gentle Dental Floss
• Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil Waxed Dental Floss Tape

If you want to continue to use traditional floss, definitely look for something like this.

Instead of the old, traditional, toxic chemicals that were used in production, it uses more natural coatings to increase lubrication.

Look at alternative methods of flossing

Traditional, wire floss isn’t the final word in terms of flossing.

There’s plenty of other methods that you can use. One of those most popular is known as “water flossing”.

You might have heard your dentist mention this in passing, and it’s definitely something worth considering.

A water flosser shoots a stream of pressurized water between your teeth, to clean out all sorts of nasty bacteria.

So many healthy alternatives are available to toxic dental floss.

With as easy as it is to switch away from it, there’s absolutely no reason not to. Just a simple switch can minimize your exposure to all sorts of dangerous carcinogens, and promote a healthier lifestyle.

Know what’s in your dental floss before you use it.

Besides PFC’s, there are more than thousands of toxic chemicals in many of the food and products you eat or use every day and they can increase your risk of diseases and even the big C.

Go to the next page and & learn how you can protect your body from these deadly toxins –

 

About the Author:

Emma Deangela is the best selling author of The Alkaline Diet Program and 80/20 Fat Loss. She has helped over tens of thousands of men and women to lose weight and transform their health with sound nutrition advice. Learn how you can lose weight fast – How to lose weight by adding these alkaline foods.

What dental floss do you used?

Please share with your friends this article on dental floss – Use any of the social media and email buttons on the left of our website.