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Comment by Always42 | Hacker News Reader

In the past i have struggled with having canker sores. After much googling l read there is an ingredient called sls that's in most toothpastes and it can cause canker sores in some people. I use sls free toothpaste and now i'm good. Less is more

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I suffered from canker sores all of my childhood and well into my early adulthood. I sometimes had as many as 20 sores around my mouth. I've as long as I remember used a non-SLS toothpaste but I still got the sores - especially around stressful periods of time like around exams. For some reason they started appearing less and less as I approached my 30'ies. I never have them anymore now. I still use the same non-SLS toothpaste though as I'm not really keen on them returning despite the toothpaste not really helping me much when I was younger. I'm imagining it helped with them not being worse than they could be.

Another reason why I kept the same toothpaste brand is that I've never had a single cavity in my adult teeth while my siblings have had plenty (they used a different brand than me). Not sure if it's credited to the toothpaste or just if it's because I never flush my mouth with water after brushing - they still do that to this day.

Thank you for sharing this! My 5-year-old daughter occasionally has canker sores. I just checked her toothpaste and it contains SLS.

I use sensodyne which is SLS free or low SLS, because I don't like how pukey regular toothpaste makes me, and my dental hygienist mentioned that she always recommends it for people with canker sores because doesn't cause them like normal toothpastes do.

Hmm, I wonder if putting surfectants in everything might have negative consequences.

What brand of toothpaste do you use for this? I often struggle to find a toothpaste that's SLS-free but still has fluoride.

Burst - https://burstoralcare.com/products/toothpaste-fluoride

Also Native has one too.

If you don't mind a baking soda toothpaste, then another option is Trader Joe's. They made a baking soda & fluoride toothpaste that is SLS free. Been using it for a number of years now... Though it's been briefly discontinued and is slated to be back later this year.

Also see Hello toothpaste (not affiliated) which has fluoride but not SLS: https://www.hello-products.com/products/naturally-whitening-...

Same problem for me, constant canker sores. Switching to Hello hasn't totally eliminated them, but it has reduced them.

Sensodyne is one that's readily available at most stores.

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