The subject pretty much sums it up. At the recommendation of the dental hygienists at our pediatric dental office, we bought Crest Pro Health Rinse for our kids, especially the older one, who got a poor score on the last visit. True to form, The Boy hasn’t been very good about using it, but The La has been very conscientious, using it every night for the past month or so. This past week, we noticed brown staining near the gums on several of her teeth. It looks terrible and since I’m the one who typically brushes her teeth, I felt really bad and started to worry about what was going wrong.
Well, The Wife googled about teeth staining and, lo and behold, there’s tons of comments on several sites about Crest Pro Health staining people’s teeth brown and causing some to lose their sense of taste, including an Amazon product page. I also found this snarky, but spot on editorial and this article.
I e-mailed Proctor and Gamble this morning and they responded within an hour or two with this message:
Thanks for contacting us, Tim.
I’m sorry about your daughter’s recent experience while using Crest Pro Health Rinse. Some people who use an antimicrobial product such as Crest Pro Health, may experience some tooth discoloration. This is true especially among those people who experience a lot of tartar. Unlike stains due to smoking or beverages which can discolor the entire tooth, antimicrobial tooth discoloration can occur in hard to brush areas like between the teeth and at the gumline. This type of staining is only temporary and on the surface of the tooth. This temporary tooth staining can be reduced or eliminated by using a power brush and a tartar control or whitening toothpaste. I’m sending you some free coupons for other Crest products. Watch for my postal reply to arrive within 2-3 weeks.
Meanwhile, to help us understand your daughter’s experience, we would like to request some additional information. We will share your information with our Health and Safety Team who will follow-up with you regarding your dental expenses.
For answers to medical questions, we recommend you speak with your dentist who will be able to give you the best advice.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Amy
Crest Team
I love how the main thrust of their response is to buy more of their products and that they readily acknowledge that Crest Pro Health will stain your teeth brown. Of course, if they did The Right Thingâ„¢ and warned you about it on the bottle, they’d lose sales, so there’s no chance of them doing that. I contacted our dentist’s office and the person that I spoke with on the phone hadn’t heard of the brown staining problem. We’ve already got an appointment for a regular cleaning next Wednesday, so I’ll report back with what they say. I’m also going to add photos to this post tonight.
16 Responses to “Crest Pro Health Rinse Turns Teeth Brown”
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yikes. i had an unopened bottle of this rinse in the bathrooom. after reading your post, i checked the bottle, and there is not a thing on the package regarding potential stains as a side effect. i thru my bottle out!
hmmm…contrary to what people are saying, i’ve used 2 entire bottles of Crest Pro Health rinse (with the Pro Health toothpaste) and have had no such ill effects whatsoever. maybe consider myself lucky?
Hi – I’m wondering if you do have those pictures you were talking about. I’m doing a story on this issue and am looking for any visuals I can find… Thank you
Sorry, contrary to what I said, I never took pictures. The staining did go away without too much trouble once we discontinued use. I still think there should be a warning or something. It’s not like it’ll disfigure you for life, but it’s still a little scary when it happens and you’re not sure of the cause.
I see the email address isn’t shown. If anyone does have pictures or video of Crest Pro Health Rinse staining, please contact me at phupe@kovr.com. Thanks…
Ive been using this product for a while now (2 weeks) and I have seen no discoloration but a whiting of my teeth along with a a cleaner feel to my mouth. I think the main point is if you already have tarter build up you get this side effect so floss your teeth and dont expect a mouth rinse to do it all for you.
I used Crest Mouthwash for a month. It was my family that noticed that my teeth were looking brown. I have brown spots on my front middle teeth and on other teeth. I have quit using all Crest products. Ironically, I bought the Crest mouthwash because it was less expensive than the brand my doctor recommended. Now I am paying for it. I have an appointment with my dentist to see what I can do to restore my teeth back to white. I suppose I will need to do the expensive whitening process.
After using one bottle of Crest Pro Health, my front top 4 teeth have brown stains. I have excellent oral hygiene. An internet search reveals that Consumer Reports and NBC’s Today show warned consumers about brown staining from this rinse. P & G maintains that very few people are affected, but 3 of 4 dentists I know have had patients come in with brown stains from it.
Our Family of 7 using pro-health wash for about a week or two. I noticed my one 9 year old’s normally clean white teeth looking totally rotted out. I went online and researched. Traced it to the brown staining from the mouth wash. Then tried for one month to remove the stains with Crest 3D white toothpaste and Zero change. All sides of all the teeth are brown. I emailed crest for reimbursement of the dentist visit for removing the stains. I have before and after photos. I am awaiting an answer…. If not acceptable I will consult a lawyer, some of the posts I have read say some people cannot get the stains off at all others say they have lost the sense of taste from this product. What is the FDA thinking to approve this !!!! oh right $$,$$$,$$$
I have noticed brown staining on my son’s teeth for months and couldn’t figure out the cause. It seemed to improve after a dental cleaning then would occur again.Finally a couple of days ago I thought maybe the rinse was the cause.I went on line and found this site.I called the phone number on the bottle and was told they would reimburse me the cost of the bottle. I have an appointment for a cleaning for him next week to try to remove the stains. He is getting braces next month and can’t have the bands put on with this discoloration. I asked for the cleaning cost to be covered and they were going to review the case.If he needs professional whitening they will be hearing for me again and perhaps an attorney.
I was shocked to find that all this has been going on since atleast back in 2007. I had never heard of such a thing so the product sounding so good in advertisment I was willing to pay more and buy the pro-health line. After only about a week and a half I went from no stains to gross! stuff that looked like cavities and rotted discoloration. I do not smoke and am not a habitual coffee or tea drinker. I wondered if some disease could cause this. I was almost frantic, so I went online and there as clear as day was the culprit – Crest Pro Health. By the way, I also got two blood blisters in my mouth. I discontinued use and the blisters though painful healed in about two-two 1/2 weeks. No matter how I brushed the stains would not come off.I contacted crest (proctor and gamble) and filled out the survey and went to the dentist. They cleaned off a lot of it but some areas are still stained and greatly bother me because they show when I talk or smile. So I am going to have to use teeth bleaching. I sent the receipts to Proctor and Gamble and hope they will reimberse. I wish this product did not exist, but if they atleast pay for my dental costs I had to pay out, then I guess I’ll just call it good. I do not think they will ever pull this product because it’s been going on for years and it is still on store shelves.
You use dark compound products such as (coffee, tea, cola, wine, tobacco, etc….). All these make yellow, brown teeth. Genetic factor also affects the color of teeth. This blog also provides more information about different reason of color teeth.
Hey this is true..
It is totally yukk!! Crest Pro-Health toothpaste contains stannous fluoride, and If you’re using that every day, you’re going to have what looks like coffee stains on your teeth.
There are other products that do a good job 🙂
Unbelievable that these products are still on the shelf! My 24 yr. old son was using the Crest Pro-Health toothpaste and mouthwash and his beautiful smile turned into a gross mess. Brown staining between the teeth. He doesn’t smoke or drink coffee or red wine. He had just moved to a new city, so thought it was the water or stress or new foods. Why would you ever think it would be Crest? 3 cleanings later and a purge of all Crest products his smile is back. I still can’t believe how many forums are out there with this warning. Thankful for everyone who has posted as it led us to the answer.
Same thing happened to me…I thought it was a reaction to amoxicillin…I look like a two pack a day smoker – and I don’t smoke!…have a cleaning scheduled so I hope that gets rid of the stains.
It stained my teeth too, no dentist i have went to ever heard of it. They look at me like i am lying. it is disgusting. Crap company. Wish i could sue.