Denture creams may be the cause of zinc toxicities

Recently, mysterious cases of nerve damage have increased which baffled the medical world. The culprit was finally pinpointed—zinc, which was found in denture creams: Fixodent and Poligrip.

It was found that people who had ill-fitting dentures tend to use large amounts of denture creams to seal the dentures. It was reported that these people used a ridiculously large amount of the adhesive cream, about two to three tubes in a week, as opposed to the recommended dose which estimates one tube per six to eight weeks.

Overdose of zinc is dangerous to the body as it can cause spinal degeneration, leading to nerve damage, which could be crippling. It may also cause suppression of the bone marrow.

In 2007, the link to denture creams was established by an Italian researcher, which was also confirmed by the many other researchers who followed and confirmed the link. It was just recently when the study was finally published in a journal.

Symptoms of zinc overdose in the patients who were examined were numbness and difficulty in moving the legs and feet, with rapid advancement to the arms until finally losing the sense of balance.

Low counts of white and red blood cells, as well as platelets were attributed to the suppression of the bone marrow.

Full recovery was not evident on the patients, even when they stopped using the denture creams.