Check Your Retainer (& other Dental Products) for Gluten (Really)

Do you have a retainer? It might contain gluten. Yes, a new study is finding that gluten, a common additive in plastics (particularly plasticized methacrylate polymer), can keep a celiac patient from going into full remission. Check with your dentist to see what your retainer and/or bite splint contains and research every ingredient that is not in plain language. 

Here's the direct study link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24137038/?i=1&from=celiac+disease

Also check these other dental products - and please note that because these products do not fall under the regulations of "food", gluten may not be listed in the ingredients:

• Minted dental floss
• Toothpaste
• Polishing paste
• Flouride
• Topical Anesthetic

Read more . . .

Update 3/4/2014: Here is a post on Triumph Dining indicating that the study findings were not conclusive - that the plastics in the retainer material may not leach out enough over time to cause alarm.Two dieticians, Amy Jones, MS, RD and Tricia Thompson, MS, RD, contacted the lead author of the study and came to this conclusion:

Amy Jones, MS, RD and Tricia Thompson, MS, RD

The original study led the dietitians to contact the lead author. After discussing, both were still not convinced of the retainer’s guilt in the diagnosis. Due to the half life of tTG (which is 6 months) and an outdated report on the contents of methylmethacrylate (from 1971), Amy Jones and Tricia Thompson concluded that “enough gluten would leach from the retainer to cause an increase in tTG levels seems a bit extraordinary.” - See more at: http://www.triumphdining.com/blog/2014/03/04/is-there-a-link-between-orthodontic-retainers-and-gluten-intolerance/?utm_source=Triumph+Dining+List&utm_campaign=c4ab154054-Newsletter+7%2F23%2F13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9c15f454b-c4ab154054-122078121#sthash.PFDy2d3Q.dpuf

 The original study led the dietitians to contact the lead author. After discussing, both were still not convinced of the retainer’s guilt in the diagnosis. Due to the half life of tTG (which is 6 months) and an outdated report on the contents of methylmethacrylate (from 1971), Amy Jones and Tricia Thompson concluded that “enough gluten would leach from the retainer to cause an increase in tTG levels seems a bit extraordinary.

This may put some fears to rest, but this will be an interesting study to follow.