New trends are coming in all the time, especially with
social media, it can be the easiest way to promote products to the masses.
Companies have promoted things like fat loss teas or using professional healthcare
students promoting scrubs which of course would gather interest and hopefully,
in the end, the desire to buy that product. One thing in this phenomenon that I
have noticed is the use of charcoal toothpaste as a natural alternative to
whiten teeth as opposed to spending enormous amounts of money by going to the
dental office to do treatments like Zoom Whitening. The question then arises,
does it really work? Typical toothpaste contains abrasives that help remove
stains like coffee or red wine, taking a look into the ingredients of charcoal
toothpaste its evident that it has harsher abrasives. If people were to really
research charcoal toothpaste products, they would find out that it isn’t even
FDA approved and no scientific evidence showing the effectiveness of charcoal
toothpaste. I think people just look for short term solutions and disregard the
long-term negative effects of a product. In a product that has harsher
abrasives, going back and forth on your teeth causes the wearing down of the
enamel and roughening the surface, opening the tooth surface to an easier
adhesion of those substances that stain teeth.
Whitening teeth can be done at home, but now products like
do it at home retainer teeth straightening kits are attracting the masses. As a pre-dental student and dentists opinions toward these treatments, its our duty to advocate and educate patients the absurdity of this as we are trying to look in the beneficence of the patient. I want them to have cheap treatment, but also quality care. I think it is important for the patients to know that these at home procedures are on a case by case depending on the severity of their condition. Although dentists are the professionals and go to school for a large amount of time, it is ultimately the autonomy of the patient to decide what they want. This
brings in the question, are these products bringing in a new age of people feeling
comfortable doing procedures that should be done by professionals?
I have also wondered what this so-called "charcoal craze" has really been centered on. I've seen coffee shops come out with new charcoal lattes and several different charcoal detox drinks that people are swearing by. This is weird because activated charcoal is actually a remedy for acute poisoning in the pre-hospital setting. Like you stated above, are people really doing their research or are they just attracted to the new short-term trends?
ReplyDeleteWhile charcoal toothpaste does not work for teeth, it also does not work that well inside of our bodies. To quote the Journal of Toxicology, "the effectiveness of activated charcoal decreases with time; the greatest benefit is within 1 hour of ingestion" (1997). So if people are using charcoal as a whitening or detoxifying agent, it seems that it would only be effective within 1 hour of drinking substances that may stain your teeth or within 1 hour of eating something that one may want "detoxifying" from.
Furthermore, it could be doing further damage because it is absorbing anything from drug toxins to bacteria and viruses. As we learned in our orientation week, our natural bacteria is SO IMPORTANT in maintaining a healthy GI system.
How do we really educate the general population about these health trends that aren't actually very healthy?
The other concern with charcoal in food is that it is really really good at absorbing medication. So if you drink a charcoal latte an hour after taking your oral birth control, or your SSRI, guess what? It doesn't work anymore. I think the government needs to regulate the supplement market more carefully to prevent this kind of snake oil treatment from causing unnecessary harm.
ReplyDeleteFurther reading: https://www.eater.com/2017/6/7/15750526/activated-charcoal-black-food-trend-nyc-ban
This title deserves an A+ rating for its click-bait quality! I am guilty of looking at Buzzfeed here and there and I hate that I do. I came here looking for a rebuke and I was not disappointed. Ariana's response immediately prompted me to share her link to some of my friends I know have been using charcoal face-masks, charcoal toothpaste, and eating charcoal ice cream. I grew up visiting my family who are all practicing Buddhists and remember seeing their houses sprinkled with charcoal logs on mantels. In Korea, I climbed to a Buddhist shrine with my aunts and was gifted several charcoal logs. I was instructed to put them in my home to "purify the air".
ReplyDeleteI never thought too much about it until recently. Did a quick search for the purification of charcoal and found out it does have some significant effect in reducing volatile insect and plant byproduct in the air.
Heath, R. R., & Manukian, A. (1992). Development and evaluation of systems to collect volatile semiochemicals from insects and plants using a charcoal-infused medium for air purification. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 18(7), 1209-1226.