26th January 2010 / Comments (5)
Phillips' Dental Magnesia Toothpaste
Woman's Weekly: 27th July 1957
Ah, so many questions, all of which can probably be covered by "Who? What?" and "Why?". Yes, milk of magnesia can neutralise stomach acid, but I can only surmise that putting it in a toothpaste was a ill-thought out idea, as I've never heard of it being able to prevent tooth cavities. Seeing as the Wikipedia article also mentions magnesium hydroxide's propensity to cause diarrhoea, I can only imagine that the product was quickly taken off the market due to customer, ahem, feedback...
Comments
Right. That's the last time I rely on teh internets for my spelling...
God bless you, you're wonderful. Rule Britannia! Toodle-pip.
This toothpaste was still on sale in the 1980,s in England. My Parents used to buy it and none of us had any fillings or decay. Dont know what happened to it but I always remembered Sterling Health written on the box
No chance that milk of magnesia in toothpaste was a good idea! Wow, must have been pretty disgusting. I once spent time working for a provider of Dental Plans and I don't recall ever seeing something like this. I thought as well that mouth acid was the thing that caused us to keep bacteria levels down in our mouths. I think you could make the argument that making our mouths more neutral could cause the cavities to be worse.
A jingoistic pedant asks you to change the spelling of the D word to "diarrhoea" - ie English as opposed to American. Thanks, Tanya.
By Martin Fenton
January 28, 2010 @ 12:26 am / #
delete / edit