Does Your Dentist Use Gluten Free Products?

Does Your Dentist Use Gluten Free Products?

We know that gluten hides in the strangest, and often completely unnecessary, of places and this is why celiacs have to be careful with everything we put in our mouths. Most of us check the toothpaste and mouthwash we use at home are safe for us, but how about the dental products used when we go for dental treatment? This is something I’ve wondered about for a while and today I came across an article about a completely gluten-free dentist in Colorado.

Boulder Dental Arts in North Boulder is a completely gluten free dentistry! All of the products they use on patients are gluten free. Apparently the centre has many people stopping by to take photos of their “Gluten-free dentistry” sign as some people think it’s a joke. I could see why this would seem funny to folks who don’t understand that being gluten free is more than a fad for some of us. But for those of us who are required to be strictly gluten-free, this is fantastic!

Dentist Jeffrey Patrician opened the office in Boulder a little over six months ago when he learned through his brother, who has celiac disease, just how many things contain gluten. Patrician started asking himself what he was putting in peoples mouths and was surprised when he began looking at the ingredients.

He says that gluten hides in many common dental products. Toothpaste, flavored polished paste, topical anesthetic and even fluoride used commonly in dentist offices can be gluten-containing. Patrician uses a product line called DMG with his patients, whose dental products are gluten free.

Since even trace amounts of gluten can make celiac patients seriously ill, hopefully more dentists will become educated about this and offer gluten free alternatives! No one wants to go to the dentist and end up sick for a week because they were contaminated! Other dentists in the Boulder area are already beginning to offer gluten-free options so hopefully more will follow suit soon.

Do you know if your dentist uses gluten-free products? Did you ever think to double check? It’s been longer than it should have been since I last visited the dentist but next time I go, I’ll have lots of questions!