I went to my dentist last week and he put me on this RX toothpaste called Prevident. It has so much fluoride in it that you can only get it by prescription. My questions are 1: why is it by prescription only, 2: what would happen if someone who didn’t have a prescription used it and 3: If its by prescription only, why do I see vendors on ebay selling it to the public?
I’ve used Prevident Gel for years. I put it in dental trays made for tooth whitener. Get the Very Berry flavor. They will have to order it but it’s very tasty.
The only thing you can get online is Prevident 500 which is a paste - very hard to use in a tray but ok for brushing.
A friend of mine had dry mouth from meds. i gave her the prevident after she’d gotted a couple of dozen cavities. Just by brushing with it, she slowed or arrest the dental caries so that once the cavities were fixed, as long as she brushed with it twice per day, she would be fine.
It’s truly amazing stuff and as long as you don’t chow down on it, perfectly safe.
Fluoride has the potential to be poisonous to people, especially small children. There isn’t much risk as long as you don’t swallow whole tubes of it but there is theoretically enough fluoride in even regular toothpaste to pose a medical danger including death if consumed in large quantities. Prescription toothpastes pose more risk than other brands so the FDA wants an extra level of control over it to make sure that people that use it understand the potential danger no matter how small. Most people don’t need the larger amounts of fluoride offered by Prevident so they don’t want large amount of fluoride to become just another marketing tool used to sell it to the masses without good reason.
You can buy just about anything over the internet including drugs with high abuse potential. That doesn’t mean much. It is likely that not all countries have controls on high fluoride toothpaste so someone so the potential just to by it there and ship it to consumers in the U.S. I am not sure about the legality of that.
The link below shows the toxic potential for fluoride:
Hi-flouride toothpaste creates a “mineralizing” environment in the mouth that can strengthen teeth and sometimes reverse cavities. it was initially available by prescription because that’s how the makers chose to market it; as to why specifically, it might be because it is rather poisonous if consumed - particularly to small children.
That said, according to my dentist, it (ETA: it being the toothpaste) is now available OTC. For the first time, I think it was last year, he said I did not need a prescription. In fact he sold me a tube there and then. In the past, I had to go to a pharmacy.
Does anyone know if it is safe to use long term? How long has it been around? I’ve noticed there seems to be less research/data available in dentistry compared to medicine. Since one is not supposed to rinse the mouth afterward, there will be some ingestion of fluoride, and so will this become a problem in 20-30 years?
Some countries allow it to be put in chewing gum! The horror!
Consuming too much fluoride ,eg swallowing the toothpaste, or the bit left after spitting out, particularly in the young, can make the teeth mottled, ugly and brittle.
So thats worse with the higher dose… Surely they warned you to rinse well ?
These zombies smell but they have unusually good teeth.
zombie or no
pastes like that can be used on your dentists recommendation.
if you have fluorine in your water, either natural or treated, then you might not need this.
The instructions on my prescription Prevident states - DO NOT RINSE, and that I should spit out as much of the used paste as possible.
A prescription is still required in West Virginia. No OTC here.
Prevident is still Rx in Texas, as others have said due to potential dangerous dose if used improperly. It has been around as long as I’ve been doing dentistry(28 years).
A few years ago fluoride preparations such as Gel-Kam that used to be Rx only became OTC. They are behind the counter and have to be asked for but no Rx needed.
With Prevident a very small amount is all that is needed. Pea sized or less. Spit as much as possible after brushing but don’t rinse.
Fluorosis is only a problem with forming teeth. I’ve never prescribed it for kids.
I actually miss it being Rx. I’d get the double pack generic for a $5 copay and it would last me all year. I think the last time I bought it OTC they only had the name brand and one tube was like $12.