Ever since my son got his first teeth I have been diligently following the oral care guidelines set out by my healthcare practitioners… swabbing his gums and washing his teeth with a soft cloth as an infant, then on to brushing twice daily and he’s never taken bottles to bed. He even went to the dentist for the first time when he was less than a year old because I’d been advised to take him 6 months after his first teeth come in.

Now that he’s 3 we’re working harder on getting regular flossing into his routine and were looking for ways to make oral care something kind of fun.

We recently saw some TV ads for Listerine mouth washes for kids… they have a product called Listerine Agent Cool Blue that works like those awful little red tablets we had when we were kids that would discolour the plaque so kids could see it to brush it off and measure their effectiveness at brushing. They also have a product called Listerine Smart Rinse to be used after brushing to stick to remaining bacteria so they can see when they spit it out after rinsing.

He’s been using both for a few weeks now.

I have noticed in the last week or so that his teeth are really quite brown and I was wondering if I just hadn’t noticed this before or if they were turning darker. I even had my husband make a dentist appointment for him – though he can’t get in until mid October now. So I did a little web search and came up with some other testimonials of Listerine Smart Rinse turning kids’ teeth brown. Just check out the search results for “Listerine Smart Rinse brown teeth“.

Wow… do I ever wish I had searched this info before using my son as a test subject.

Now you can choose to chastise me for using a product that is for 6+ years on a 3 year old but the outcome would no doubt be the same on an older child.

We have obviously stopped using these products and I am going to do my best to spread this message to every concerned mother out there. This product is put out by Johnson & Johnson Inc. in Canada. The product packaging advises rinsing for a full minute after brushing… we’ve only been doing it for a count of 10. I can’t imagine how bad it would be if he had been rinsing for a full minute.

It seems the culprit is an ingredient called Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), which is known to cause tooth staining that looks similar to that caused by tobacco, coffee or tea and yet it is still included in a children’s mouth without any warnings at all.

Please pass this information on to other parents, and do not buy this product.

I only hope we can get his teeth white again.