Fixodent denture cream can cause nerve damage, says report

Sunday, February 13, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: denture cream, nerve damage, health news

(NaturalNews) A recent ABC News investigation has identified a connection between the use of the popular denture cream Fixodent and permanent neurological disorders. Some Fixodent users allege that regular use of the cream has caused them to develop serious, debilitating nerve damage, which has sparked a class-action lawsuit against Proctor & Gamble (P&G), the maker of Fixodent.

"I started getting tingling in my fingertips," said Mark Jacoby, a Fixodent victim, to ABC News' 20/20 anchor Chris Cuomo. "I started getting weaker and, you know, I couldn't walk right, off balance and I'm at this point now."

The Fixodent ingredient in question is zinc, which unless taken along with copper, can rob the body of the necessary mineral over time and cause irreversible nerve damage. And since denture users affix zinc-containing creams to their gums every single day, their long-term absorption rates of zinc are much higher than normal than an average person's.

P&G insists that Fixodent contains only a minimal amount of zinc to help dentures stay in place, and that the amount used is less than what one would find in an average multivitamin or serving of raw beef. But this reassurance has not stopped several crippled Fixodent users from banding together to file a class-action lawsuit against P&G.

"I don't know if you can put a dollar value on my health or anybody else's, for that matter," said 48-year-old Ann Coffman, who was diagnosed with zinc poisoning and is now stuck in a wheelchair with limited use of her hands and legs. "I would prefer to see [P&G] take the zinc right out of the product ... or take the product right off the market."

Fixodent is one of the only brands of denture cream that still uses zinc in its formula. GlaxoSmithKline's Poligrip and even most drug store denture cream brands do not contain zinc. However further study may be necessary to determine whether or not zinc is the actual culprit in Fixodent.

Sources for this story include:

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/fixodent-popula...