When he was a kid in the 1960s, my late brother was very proud of the fact that he could recite, from memory, the following statement: ”Crest has been shown to be an effective decay-preventive dentifrice that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional care.”
As other aging boomers surely know, these words appeared on the back of tubes of Crest toothpaste, and, for some time, only on tubes of Crest toothpaste. The statement was powerful because it was accompanied by the logo of the American Dental Association (ADA), which, in 1960 did something it had never done before: endorsed one specific brand of toothpaste.
I share this with you because today’s #stampoftheday is a 4-cent stamp, issued on September 14, 1959 that honored the 100th anniversary of ADA’s founding by 26 dentists who were meeting in Niagara Falls, NY. (The actual meeting was in August; perhaps the post office was running a little late…) Because I didn’t want to bite of more than I could chew, I brushed up on the history of ADA, particularly on Crest toothpaste. I’ve picked through that history to give you a few nuggets. Hopefully there aren’t any holes (or cavities) in this story and hopefully it will stand the test of time (that is, hopefully it won’t decay).
From its founding, ADA focused on encouraging good dental hygiene and relying on science and data in its work. In 1908, ADA published its first dental education pamphlet, which had tips for good oral hygiene, including recommendations that people brush twice a day and visit the dentist twice a year. In 1931, the ADA created its Seal of Acceptance to protect people from unsafe products that for decades had been offered as dental remedies, such as tooth powders for gum disease that contained sulfuric acid. And in the 1930s ADA also created a body that both sets educational standards for dental professionals and accredits dental education programs. As a result of all these activities ADA has grown far beyond its original 26 members. In 1930, ADA has more than 36,000 members, representing about half of U.S. dentists; by the late 1940s, 85 percent of America’s dentists were members. Today the group has more 160,000 members, 55 state or territorial-level dental societies, and more than 500 local dental groups.
As for the ADA and Crest, as the New York Times noted in his 1996 obituary, it primarily was the result of work done by Joseph Charles Muhler, who, the Times said, was “a latter-day alchemist who helped turn stannous fluoride into tubed gold.” A dentist who also received a PhD in chemistry, Muhler started working on what became Crest in the late 1940s while he was still in dental school at Indiana University. At that time, scientists had begun to recognize that fluorides, chemical compounds containing the element fluorine, held science’s answer to tooth decay. (ADA officially endorsed fluoride treatments in 1950). According to the Times, “at the time, dentists favored sodium fluoride, but there are many other fluoride compounds, and Dr. Muhler tinkered with some 150 of them. He persisted with the stannous—or tin—variety, believing it to be the most effective in hardening tooth enamel and protecting it from acids. He eventually proved it so,” showing that it was 50 percent more effective than sodium fluoride.
Procter & Gamble, which was looking for a decay-fighting toothpaste, heard about his work and in 1949 – after Muhler had graduated from dental school but while he was still working on his PhD in chemistry at IU—agreed to underwrite further work. Muhler, who got his PhD in 1951 and then became an assistant professor of chemistry at IU – led the clinical field tests that proved the effectiveness of stannous fluoride as an ingredient in toothpaste. Procter & Gamble test-marketed Crest in 1955, and it went on sale nationally the next year. Crest became the leading seller, especially after 1960, when the ADA endorsed it after ADA’s Council on Dental Therapeutics found that Crest was significantly better than other toothpastes then on the market. As a result, Crest became the nation’s best-selling toothpaste. Eventually, other manufacturers developed their own fluoride formulas and they too got ADA’s Seal of Acceptance. And the widespread use of fluoride toothpaste is credited as a significant factor in the nationwide decline in cavities that began in the late 1970s. But Crest is still the that naton’s best-selling toothpaste: in 2019 Crest 3D White had sales of $264 million, far outpacing the second-place toothpaste, Sensodyne Pronamel, which had sales of around $197 million
Muhler and his colleagues did receive some royalties from their work and they, in turn, gave half the proceeds to Indiana University for dental research. Muhler spent his professional life at IU. In 1972 he was named a research professor of dental science and director of the School of Dentistry’s Dental Research Institute. And in 1976, the American Chemical Society (ACS) recognized stannous fluoride toothpaste as one of the 100 greatest discoveries of the previous 100 years. That strongly suggests that in addition to his vicarious connection to my brother, Muhler probably had some interactions with my father who in the early 1970s was the founding editor of ChemTech, a magazine published by the American Chemical Society.
Who knew I had such a close brush with fame?
Stay safe, be well, make sure you follow a “conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional care,” fight for justice and work for peace.