This Depressing Flavor-Free Toothpaste Cleared Up My Perioral Dermatitis
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A few years ago, my skin was in revolt. My face turned bright red and stung after a shower; bumpy red rashes appeared across my chin and the corners of my mouth. Some of it was overzealous use ofDr. Dennis Gross peel pads, but when I finally went to an allergist, a patch test confirmed that I was allergic to a handful of ingredients — the most disruptive were fragrance, beeswax, and neomycin, the active ingredient in Neosporin — and, as a bonus, to the tape they use to adhere allergen patches to your back. The allergist’s office generated a 107-page PDF of products I could safely use, which included dozens of fragrance-free moisturizers, sunscreens, shampoos, hand soaps, and laundry detergents. In the oral-care section, there was a solitary listing for “Toothpaste, Original (flavor free)” by a brand called Cleure.
I bought the toothpaste. I was purging everything smelly from my life, so why stop at dental care? Now that I knew fragrance was a trigger, I could see how smearing mint-scented paste around my mouth twice a day might be contributing to the prickly red rash, which a dermatologist diagnosed as perioral dermatitis. Cleure’s toothpaste (the brand’s name is a portmanteau ofcleanandpure) is not only fragrance free, it is free of dyes, gluten, and sodium lauryl sulfates (a foaming ingredient thatcan be an irritant). There are also no essential oils to add flavor, which I appreciated — a lot of natural products skip artificial scents but contain blends of botanical oils, which are quite potent and can feel like playing Russian roulette if you haven’t tested to make sure you’re not sensitive to licorice root, prickly ash, sarsaparilla, or whatever else is on the ingredient list.
Cleure has an interesting slogan: “The original flavor-free toothpaste with a great taste.” This is overselling it. There is a very faint sweetness from the xylitol, but Cleure toothpaste does not taste great, nor does it taste bad. It really just tastes like nothing; swirling it around in your mouth, you mostly just taste mouth. But after three years of using it every day, I am at peace with my depressing flavor-free toothpaste. I find that I don’t miss the flavored stuff, although my breath doesn’t have the minty tang that broadcasts just-cleaned teeth, brushing still removes the bacteria that cause bad breath, and I notice a pleasant, neutral clean taste instead.
The Cleure toothpaste cleans using xylitol, baking soda, and calcium carbonate and doesn’t contain fluoride — the brand leaves it out to make its toothpaste safe to swallow. Althoughmost dentists recommend using a fluorinated toothpaste(and if Cleure made one, I’d buy it), my dentist hasn’t noticed and I haven’t gotten any cavities since switching. The trade-off between no fluoride and no allergens is one I’d make every time, although if you have cavity-prone teeth, this might not be for you. A few months after switching, the red bumpy rash around my mouth and chin disappeared just like that and hasn’t returned since. Turns out the smelly toothpaste was the culprit all along.
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Some more fragrance-free products I use
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