DHYG 104

Your patients ask you about a recent dental product or trending concern - how do you find out the real story? Be a super sleuth and find the evidence!

For the purposes of this help guide, dental products will be considered anything that has a chemical ingredient used intraorally, including:

• Toothpastes
• Mouth rinses
• Breath fresheners
• Whitening agents
• Chewing gum
• Denture adhesives
• Over the counter drugs - (examples: GUM Periobalance, canker sore treatments)
• Artificial saliva/mouth moisturizers 
• Others

According to the FDA, dental devices are devices that "are used to maintain dental health and treat dental problems when they occur." In the grocery store aisle, consumers may run across "devices" including:

• Toothbrushes
• Floss/interdental cleaners
• Tongue scrapers
• Waterpiks
• Denture cleansers (these are tricky to categorize and are included in this list because they are used on the dentures rather than in the oral cavity)
• Mouthguards
• Others