Is toothpaste safe to eat?

[Mr Rayon]

Has anyone ever died from accidentally swallowing a little toothpaste after brushing their teeth?

[AndresKiani]

I assume sodium fluoride is something that would possibly interject negatively with common biological processes and so yes I do believe it's not good for you.

Edited December 15, 2014 by AndresKiani

[Commander]

No

[ACG52]

No

[Ophiolite]

Has anyone ever died from accidentally swallowing a little toothpaste after brushing their teeth?

Can you imagine the FDA and other licensing authorities allowing a (seriously)poisonous product that is routinely placed in the mouth?

[ajb]

You should not ingest too much sodium fluoride and tubes of toothpaste say something about minimising swallowing of the product. Similar to your sun cream question; I would not eat 10 or more tubes of toothpaste a day.

[swansont]

The LD₅₀ of NaF is 5-10g for an average-sized human

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoride

 

The 119 g tube of toothpaste I have here is 0.24% NaF. (I think that's by mass); larger tubes are available. So yes, doses measured in tubes get into potentially dangerous territory. How many brushings do you get per tube? Of order 100?

[Greg H.]

The LD₅₀ of NaF is 5-10g for an average-sized human

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoride

 

The 119 g tube of toothpaste I have here is 0.24% NaF. (I think that's by mass); larger tubes are available. So yes, doses measured in tubes get into potentially dangerous territory. How many brushings do you get per tube? Of order 100?

Assuming that's right, and I have done my maths correctly, that would mean you'd have to eat (splitting the difference and calling 7.5 g fatal) 26 119 g of paste in order to get a fatal dose. Given my normal brushing habits (2x a day, every day) a normal sized tube lasts me about 3 - 4 months. So that's roughly seven and a half years worth of toothpaste.

 

So if you were brushing your teeth something like 5000 times a day, you'd probably start to have issues, which is a physical impossibility.(See below). You'd actually have to just eat it.

 

Though, as an aside, if you actually brushed your teeth that many times, for the recommended two minutes a time, that would be 7 days of non-stop brushing, 24 hours a day. You'd scrub your gums off first, would be my supposition.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Greg H.

[swansont]

Assuming that's right, and I have done my maths correctly, that would mean you'd have to eat (splitting the difference and calling 7.5 g fatal) 26 119 g of paste in order to get a fatal dose. Given my normal brushing habits (2x a day, every day) a normal sized tube lasts me about 3 - 4 months. So that's roughly seven and a half years worth of toothpaste.

 

 

 

I would hesitate to equate LD50 with a cutoff for a fatal dose. LD50 where half of the people given that dose are expected to die, so a smaller dose can be fatal. Otherwise yes, the amount one typically might ingest is much, much smaller, so swallowing one brushing's worth is probably nothing to worry about.

[Greg H.]

 

 

I would hesitate to equate LD50 with a cutoff for a fatal dose. LD50 where half of the people given that dose are expected to die, so a smaller dose can be fatal. Otherwise yes, the amount one typically might ingest is much, much smaller, so swallowing one brushing's worth is probably nothing to worry about.

I agree with you in principle, but for the rough purposes of pointing out why it's nothing to worry about in the normal course of events, I just needed some numbers.

 

Even if we assume a fatal dose an order of magnitude smaller (.75g), we're still talking about roughly 3 full tubes of tooth paste in a short amount of time (as I said, I didn't look up how fast it disappates from the body, and to get an accurate number it really should be factored in). The point remains that, unless you are seriously misusing it, toothpaste swallowing isn't likely to kill you any time soon. Of course, the same thing applies to a whole litany of other products humans regularly ingest as well.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Greg H.

[John Cuthber]

The other ingredients may well be more toxic than the fluoride- simply because there's a lot more of them present.

[StringJunky]

This is from the MSDS for Crest toothpaste:

 

 

Ingestion: Ingestion of 1 oz. or more may cause nausea, vomiting, and mild GI irritation.

http://www.pg.com/productsafety/msds/health_care/oral_care/Crest_Vivid_White_Toothpaste.pdf

 

[magnocrat]

Interesting stuff: these days people use mouth-wash by the bucket load to smell nice I have always assumed it to be harmless. Some even go so far as to gargle with the stuff to clear sore throats.