Hi, Martin. Welcome to a.s.h., and yes, this is the place.

I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help to you, other than to
say that I'm sure that some toothpastes can be a trigger for some
people.

I'm not a big fan of gel toothpastes myself (probably because paste
was all we had back during my formative years), but they do seem to
be dominating the market these days.

The only thing I can recommend is to experiment and see what works
for your wife and what doesn't, and try to see if there is some
correlation between her outbreaks and the ingredient lists on
different brands.

Take care,

Mike

Hi,

There are other remedies such as putting yogurt on the sore since the
presence of lysine helps sores heal faster/prevents breakouts, and yogurt is
one such food that contains a good dose of lysine.

Mary

I too can't find any toothpaste and HSV papers or studies in the form you
are talking. The SLS and mouth ulcers issue is suggested to be irritation
of the mucous membranes allowing easier development of the ulcers and I
guess its not too much of a stretch to link irritation of that sort to
cold sore outbreaks but that would be educated guesswork rather than
knowing something.

I tried to avoid the SLS toothpastes for the ulcer reason and it helps
some...also in the UK and not liking ultra minty or gels I ended up mainly
staring at sensodynes range...but my dentist did point out they are much
more abrasive than most others so that might be an issue (thus far, touch
wood, my teeth themselves have behaved like rocks - hnady given the stuff
I tend to throw at them - sweet tooth, me)

Tim
--
When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart
ICQ: 5178568

I have it on good authority that a better, more healthful selection
of toothpastes can be found in health food stores.  And also that
plain old baking soda and water works wonders.  (It's good for your
drains, too.)

Hope that helps,

Mike