Denture cream zinc allegedly harmful

MINERAL WELLS, Texas, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A Texas woman allegedly became wheelchair-bound from using more than the recommended amount of denture cream containing zinc, a lawsuit indicates.

Elizabeth Gilley, 26, of Mineral Wells, one of a number of people involved in a class-action lawsuit, used more denture cream than what manufacturers anticipate as normal use, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Wednesday.

GlaxoSmithKline, the producer of Poligrip and Super Poligrip, and Procter & Gamble, which makes Fixodent, said their products contain zinc in amounts recognized as safe, and the Food and Drug Administration's classifications of the creams as medical devices means zinc is not required to be listed as an ingredient.

Gilley started wearing dentures at age 15 due to a genetic tooth-enamel disorder. She used denture cream approximately once every two hours because she feared her ill-fitting dentures would fall out while eating lunch in her school's cafeteria, the newspaper said.

A University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study in 2008 showed young to middle-age patients developed numbness, weakness and difficulty walking after ingesting high levels of zinc. The four people in the study used an average of two denture cream tubes per week as compared with the one tube every month to six weeks recommended by dentists.

Ed Blizzard of Houston, Gilley's attorney, said denture wearers did not know they should use a particular amount of the cream because until recently there were no warnings against using as much as they needed.

"In fact, on the box, it said that if the amount you're using doesn't work, use more," Blizzard said.