Attorney General Ken Paxton investigates toothpaste companies for fluoride exposure

Ken Paxton's fluoride investigation in toothpaste

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine if toothpaste that contains fluoride is being illegally marketed to kids.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine if toothpaste that contains fluoride is being illegally marketed to kids.        

While the recommended dosage of toothpaste says no more than a pea-sized smear or a drop the size of a kernel of rice should be used, Paxton says toothpaste manufacturers continue to flavor their products and deceptively market them in ways that encourage kids to ingest more than the safe and recommended amount of fluoride toothpaste.

Now the attorney general wants to know if kids are ingesting too much fluoride based on how toothpaste is advertised to children.

Toothpaste marketing

Dig deeper:

Paxton announced civil investigative demands that were sent to the parent companies of Colgate and Crest. 

Paxton says a 2024 Department of Human Services national toxicology meta-analysis found a statistically significant association between fluoride exposure and lower IQ scores in children.

Paxton says through investigation he will learn whether toothpaste makers are putting Texas families in peril through false, misleading and deceptive marketing.

Questioning fluoride safety

Fluoride safety is being questioned again as two states, Utah and Florida, recently took steps to ban fluoride from being added to drinking water systems.

What they're saying:

Dentist Mary Swift is the Community Water Fluoridation Chair of the Texas Dental Association and says fluoride is safe.

"I see the point of the attorney general that the photographic shot of a toothbrush about to go into a kid's mouth, the marketing of it, shows a full brush full of toothpaste. Yet the recommended dose is much smaller than that," said Swift. 

"If they ingested an entire tube of toothpaste they would experience a very upset stomach. That would be the most of it. There would not be lasting long-term effects."

Dentist Swift also says there are holes in the study that connected fluoride exposure to lower IQ scores for children. Stating that the overwhelming body of research shows fluoride is safe.

"There are seven thousand studies and research papers. This is an important part of peer-reviewed studies, so the toxicology report that the opponents to fluoride quote was never peer-reviewed, and it was very well understood that the toxicology report that linked iq with fluoride was a very poorly run study," said Swift.

"We've got seventy-five years of proof that fluoride reduces decay and is safe."

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