Procter & Gamble Urged to Recall Denture Cream Containing Zinc

April 7, 2010, 10:30AM. By Gordon Gibb

Washington, DCConsumers of Fixodent denture adhesive recently benefitted from a cautionary note posted on the website of Fixodent manufacturer Procter & Gamble. "Some reports suggest that excessive and prolonged zinc intake may be linked to adverse health effects," states the note, according to the 4/4/10 issue of Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly.

Critics say the warning comes too little too late, as denture cream manufacturers have done little in the past to inform the general public about the risks involved with the excessive use of denture cream.

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt, who has written about the issue in recent weeks, joined host Linda Wertheimer on National Public Radio (NPR) this past Sunday. Leonhardt underscored the usefulness of zinc as an adhesion agent for dentures—indeed, the human body requires a certain amount of zinc for optimum health.

However, too much zinc can cause copper deficiency, which in turn can lead to neurological problems. "In one case, there appears to be a death that was tied to use of these creams," Leonhardt told NPR on 4/4/10.

When asked if denture creams were the primary cause of the various neurological infirmities that formed the basis of several lawsuits, Leonhardt told Wertheimer and NPR, "It is not 100 percent clear because there's almost always some uncertainty in science, but it seems highly probable. There was a recent study conducted by a scientist at Vanderbilt University in which he went out and found 11 people with very elevated levels of zinc.

"He didn't know why they had the levels, and then he tested them. It turned out all 11 of them had elevated levels of zinc because they were using large amounts of this denture cream. He told me that really surprised him. He didn't expect to see all 11, but it seems to be one of the main causes of people having too much zinc in their system."

Leonhardt went on to say that while denture creams have been around for decades, zinc wasn't included as an adhesion agent until 1996, when GlaxoSmithKline first added zinc to its Poligrip denture cream. The first study that linked denture cream to certain neurological disorders didn't appear until 2008.

When a link finally began to emerge, manufacturers failed to react aggressively, according to Leonhardt. "I mean, what GlaxoSmithKline did was they put a note in the creams that said: For best results, start with a small amount. That's not exactly a really clear warning."

GlaxoSmithKline has since decided to stop marketing its denture creams containing zinc. Health advocates are calling on Procter & Gamble to do the same with Fixodent denture adhesive.