Denture Cream Poisoning Lawsuits

November 14, 2010, 8:00AM. By Heidi Turner

Boise, IDFor patients who used denture cream, such as Fixodent denture adhesive to hold their dentures in place, the neurological symptoms that developed probably seemed like a mystery. After all, people often do not associate neurological problems with denture cream zinc poisoning. Why should Fixodent denture cream—or any other denture cream—cause problems such as tremors and seizures?

The problem, according to lawsuits filed against the makers of Fixodent denture adhesive and Super Poligrip, is that those products contained too much zinc and users were not adequately warned about the risks associated with using too much of the product. Specifically, that overuse of the product would allegedly cause a person to have too much zinc in his or her system, which would then lead to a deficiency of copper, which is linked to serious health problems.

The issue might seem to be minor. Denture cream users were told on the packaging to use a small amount. The problem is that many denture cream users used the denture adhesive to hold ill-fitting dentures in place. In other words, they used far more denture cream than they probably should have because their dentures did not fit properly. They did so, not realizing that their health could be at risk because of it.

Lawsuits have been filed against Proctor & Gamble Inc, maker of Fixodent, and GlaxoSmithKline Inc, maker of Poligrip, alleging consumers were not adequately warned about the risk of using too much denture cream. Those risks include neuropathy, peripheral nerve damage, weakness, lack of coordination, and numbness and pain.

Since the link between denture adhesives and zinc poisoning was reported, after a paper was published in Neurology in 2008, GlaxoSmithKline announced it would not produce Poligrip with zinc in it. Proctor & Gamble products still contain zinc, but include a warning about avoiding excessive use. The Neurology paper reported that denture cream containing zinc could cause serious neurologic disease if chronically overused.

Unfortunately for users of the denture cream, there were no guidelines given for what constituted "overuse."

GlaxoSmithKline reportedly settled some lawsuits regarding its denture adhesive. According to a GlaxoSmithKline press release, issued on the company's Web site on 7/21/10, "With respect to the Poligrip product liability litigation, the Group has reached agreement in principle to settle the vast majority of cases."