Holy Shit: Those Plastic Microbeads Are in Your Toothpaste Too

BuzzFeed’s Katie Notopoulos credits dental hygienist Trish Walraven, who runs the blog Dental Buzz, for paying attention to the issue. In March, Walraven wrote a post calling out Crest for putting the little beads in their toothpastes. The issue is that the beads, Walraven wrote, are made of polyurethane and get trapped in the gums of patients:

I’ve been seeing these blue particles flush out of patients’ gums for several months now. So has the co-hygienist in our office. So have many dental hygienists throughout the United States and Canada who have consulted with each other and realized that we have a major concern on our hands.

Walraven’s post got a ton of attention (though apparently failed to reach the ears of this tooth-obsessed individual) and so now, Crest has said that they’re taking toothpastes with microbeads off the market, something they’ve been telling a lot of people tweeting at them over the past few days:

Phew.