Is Your Toothpaste Inviting Canker Sores?

An ingredient in most toothpaste's, sodium lauryl sulfate – or SLS - is used to help mix ingredients in toothpaste, and to create that foaming action you've come to expect when you brush your teeth. SLS opponents say that this ingredient dries out the protective mucus lining in the mouth, making it vulnerable to irritants that can lead to canker sores.

SLS’s relationship to canker sores was investigated in a preliminary study conducted by two doctors in Oslo, Norway. They reported a 60-70% reduction in the number of canker sores in patients who used SLS-free toothpaste for three months.

But another study tells a different story.

In January 1999, a research team from the Department of Oral Medicine and Periodontology of St. Bartholomew’s in London compared the effects of toothpaste's with and without SLS. This study group was nearly five times larger than the group in the Norwegian study. This study concluded: "SLS-free dentifrice [toothpaste] had no significant effect on ulcer [canker sore] patterns in the …study group."

But there’s nothing preventing you from giving the SLS-free toothpaste's a try. To be fair, even scientific, you should conduct your own "study" for three months. See how SLS affects your canker sores. Here are a few SLS-free toothpaste's on the market: