Abstract
Background
Sales of charcoal dentifrices and powders have rapidly emerged into the Internet marketplace.
The authors conducted a literature review to examine the efficacy and safety of charcoal
and charcoal-based dentifrices.
Methods
The authors searched the MEDLINE and Scopus databases for clinical studies on the
use of charcoal and charcoal-based dentifrices and laboratory investigations on the
bioactivity or toxicity of charcoal and charcoal-based dentifrices, published through
February 2017. The authors used a defined search strategy to identify randomized,
controlled clinical trials with a follow-up duration of 3 months or longer. In addition,
the authors selected the first 50 consecutive charcoal dentifrices from Google.com and Amazon.com for ascertainment of product assortment and advertising promotions.
Results
The authors’ literature search identified 118 potentially eligible articles. Thirteen
studies reported brushing the teeth with raw charcoal or soot; however, none of these
studies met the inclusion criteria. Two studies offered nonspecific caries reductions,
3 studies reported deleterious outcomes (increased caries, enamel abrasion, nonquantified
negative impact), and 1 study indicated only that brushing with raw charcoal had no
adverse effects on oral hygiene. Seven other studies reported only on the use of charcoal
for oral hygiene. Internet advertisements included unsubstantiated therapeutic claims—such
as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and oral detoxification, as well as potentially
misleading product assertions. One-third of the charcoal dentifrices contained bentonite
clay, and 1 contained betel leaves.
Conclusions
The results of this literature review showed insufficient clinical and laboratory
data to substantiate the safety and efficacy claims of charcoal and charcoal-based
dentifrices. Larger-scale and well-designed studies are needed to establish conclusive
evidence.
Practical Implications
Dental clinicians should advise their patients to be cautious when using charcoal
and charcoal-based dentifrices with unproven claims of efficacy and safety.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
ADA Member Login
Login with your ADA username and password.
One-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Purchase one-time access:
Already a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Hygiene and the ancient Romans.Br J Infect Control. 2004; 5: 25-27
- Charcoal controls caries; an account of a survey of the incidence of dental caries in southern India.Br Dent J. 1946; 80: 232-234
- Alternatives to toothpaste.Br Dent J. 1992; 172: 368
- Tooth cleaning methods and their effectiveness among adults in rural Tanzania.Proc Finn Dent Soc. 1992; 88: 139-145
- Dental caries and periodontal diseases among urban, rural and tribal school children.Indian Pediatr. 1993; 30: 759-764
- Dental abrasion pattern in a selected group of Malaysians.J Nihon Univ Sch Dent. 1990; 32: 175-180
- The history of oral hygiene products: how far have we come in 6000 years?.Periodontol 2000. 1997; 15: 7-14
- Activated charcoal for acute overdose: a reappraisal.Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2016; 81: 482-487
- Use of Actisorb* dressings over a skin-grafted infected wound.Burns. 2011; 37: 360-361
- Activated charcoal and baking soda to reduce odor associated with extensive blistering disorders.Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol. 2008; 74: 122-124
- Relief of idiopathic generalized pruritus in dialysis patients treated with activated oral charcoal.Ann Intern Med. 1980; 93: 446-448
- Mesoporous bamboo charcoal nanoparticles as a new near-infrared responsive drug carrier for imaging-guided chemotherapy/photothermal synergistic therapy of tumor.Adv Healthc Mater. 2016; 5: 1627-1637
- Charcoal tattoo localization for differentiated thyroid cancer recurrence in the central compartment of the neck.Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital. 2012; 32: 87-92
- Acute and 28-day sub-acute oral toxicity evaluation of two dietary bamboo charcoal powders in Sprague-Dawley rats.J Huazhong Univ Sci Technolog Med Sci. 2015; 35: 192-199
- Risk factors for dental caries among children with cerebral palsy in a low-resource setting.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2017; 59: 538-543
- Caries prevalence of school-going boys and girls according to cleaning methods and soft drink–taking frequency in different localities, in and around Guwahati City.J Indian Soc Pedod Prev Dent. 2016; 34: 249-256
- Dental health in Malaysia.Int Dent J. 1984; 34: 261-265
- Oral health related behaviors among adult Tanzanians: a national pathfinder survey.BMC Oral Health. 2009; 9: 22
- An investigation into the cause and treatment of dental caries.Dent Gazette. 1944; 11: 108-117
- Alternatives to toothpaste.Br Dent J. 1992; 173: 9-10
- Traditional oral health practices among Kanuri women of Borneo State, Nigeria.Odontostomatol Trop. 2004; 27: 25-31
- Oral health practices among pregnant women in North Eastern Nigeria.Niger J Clin Pract. 2012; 15: 302-305
- Assessment of chewing stick (miswak) use in a Muslim community in Cameroon.Eur J Gen Dent. 2013; 2: 50-53
- Socio-cultural aspects of oral health among the Fulani in Ferlo (Senegal): a qualitative study.Acta Odontol Scand. 2013; 71: 1290-1295
- Oral health: charcoal brushes.Br Dent J. 2014; 217: 3
- Biological interaction between Sasa senanensis Rehder leaf extract and toothpaste ingredients.In Vivo. 2013; 27: 275-284
- Bamboo charcoal inhibits growth of HeLa cells in vitro.Dent Mater J. 2004; 23: 633-637
- Black teeth: beauty or caries prevention? Practice and beliefs of the Kammu people.Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2006; 34: 81-86
- Ethnobotanical tattooing of the gingiva: literature review and report of a case.JADA. 2007; 138: 1097-1101
- Diffuse pigmentation of maxillary attached gingiva: four cases of the cultural practice of gingival tattoo.J Periodontol. 2007; 78: 170-176
- In-vitro inhibition of glucosyltransferase from the dental plaque bacterium Streptococcus mutans by common beverages and food extracts.Arch Oral Biol. 1985; 30: 821-826
- Safety assessment of dietary bamboo charcoal powder: a 90-day subchronic oral toxicity and mutagenicity studies.Food Chem Toxicol. 2015; 75: 50-57
- Carcinogenic PAH in waterpipe charcoal products.Food Chem Toxicol. 2010; 48: 3242-3245
US Department of Health and Human Services. Substances listed in the 14th report on carcinogens. Available at: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/listed_substances_508.pdf. Accessed May 6, 2017.
- Bentonite toxicology and epidemiology: a review.Inhal Toxicol. 2016; 28: 591-617
- Role of bentonite clays on cell growth.Chemosphere. 2016; 149: 57-61
- Piper betel leaf: a reservoir of potential xenohormetic nutraceuticals with cancer-fighting properties.Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2014; 7: 477-486
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of association of smokeless tobacco and of betel quid without tobacco with incidence of oral cancer in South Asia and the Pacific.PLoS One. 2014; 9: e113385
- The science and practice of caries prevention.JADA. 2000; 131: 887-899
- Studies on fluoride removal using adsorption process.J Environ Sci Eng. 2006; 48: 151-156
- Investigation on fixed bed column performance of fluoride adsorption by sugarcane charcoal.J Environ Biol. 2013; 34: 1059-1064
Biography
Dr. Brooks is a clinical professor, Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Room 7210, 650 West Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21201.
Biography
Dr. Bashirelahi is a professor, Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.
Biography
Dr. Reynolds is a professor, Department of Periodontics, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: June 07, 2017
This article has an accompanying online continuing education activity available at: http://jada.ada.org/ce/home.Footnotes
Disclosure. None of the authors reported any disclosures.
The authors express their appreciation to Mr. Mark Teske, The Photo and Graphics Group, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, for his photographic expertise and to Dr. Hanae Saito, Department of Periodontics, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, for her translational services.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- More on charcoal and charcoal-based dentifricesThe Journal of the American Dental AssociationVol. 148Issue 11
- PreviewSubsequent to the online publication of our September JADA article titled “Charcoal and Charcoal-based Dentifrices: A Literature Review” (Brooks JK, Bashirelahi N, Reynolds M. JADA 2017;148[9]:661-670),1 we discovered links on the JADA home page to 2 brief review articles on charcoal dental products that were pronounced “not acceptable” by the Accepted Dental Remedies (ADR), The Council on Dental Therapeutics. Both of these articles were published in JADA more than 70 years ago and neither had surfaced in our PubMed and Scopus archival literature searches.
- Full-Text
- Preview
