Maine toothpaste maker smiling after decision

At first glance, it seems like only a small, maybe even silly, victory for the anti-animal-testing crowd. After seven years, tiny Tom’s of Maine, which makes “natural” hygiene products, has persuaded the American Dental Association to grant its coveted seal of approval to Tom’s toothpaste. And it did so by sidestepping the key scientific hurdle: forcing lab rats to have their teeth brushed.

“It’s not vivisection, but it is subjecting an animal to something against its will,” said Nancy Rosenzweig, a spokeswoman for Tom’s. “You can’t ask an animal if it wants to have its teeth brushed.”

Come on — what rat couldn’t use a vigorous daily brushing, especially considering its diet? Not to mention an occasional flossing.

But there’s more to this rat plaque story than meets the eye.

First, the necessary tests were performed on humans instead. And they involved brushing someone else’s teeth.

Second, and more importantly for companies such as Tom’s that sell products under the “green” banner, the ADA’s blessing may be a way out of crunchy health food stores and into sleek megapharmacies and groceries. And it may force establishment organizations such as the ADA to change their thinking.

Since Tom’s was founded in 1970, it has banned artificial preservatives and sweeteners from its toothpaste, soap, deodorant and other products. Moreover, the company — actually run by a guy named Tom (Tom Chappell and his wife, Kate) in Maine (Kennebunk) — has refused to let its products be tested on animals, following what animal-rights activists call a “cruelty-free” policy.

“We are really serious about this, and we know a lot of our consumers are serious about this, too,” Rosenzweig said. “We need to be faithful to our values.”

The quest for the ADA seal was spurred by the requests of the thousands of customers who write to Tom’s, Rosenzweig said. In the late 1980s customers began asking why Tom’s fluoride toothpaste didn’t carry the ADA seal, which would certify that the toothpaste not only cleaned teeth but actually rebuilt them, thanks to the fluoride. The seal would also certify that Tom’s products were truthfully “natural,” a term for which the ADA did not have a definition.

Tom’s wanted to give its customers what they asked for. Of course, it also knew this: When Crest became the first toothpaste to get the ADA seal in 1960, its sales tripled.

Problem was, the rats.

To satisfy the ADA’s testing standards, researchers ordinarily use something similar to a Q-Tip to swab toothpaste on the teeth of lab rats, brushing the two big incisors up front and the molars on each side, said Kenneth Burrell, senior director of the ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs. And they do this every day for more than a month. (The toothpaste must be exposed to saliva, and apparently — and rather troublingly — rat spit is not all that different from its human equivalent.) The point is to see if the fluoride toothpaste “recalcifies” weak spots in the teeth.

If free dental care doesn’t sound like such a bad idea these days, consider this: At the end of the test, the rats are killed and their jaws cut off so their teeth can be viewed under a microscope — which is the only way to tell if the fluoride worked.

Ahh. Umm. Still, they’re just rats, right?

Not to Tom’s customers. They buy Tom’s for a reason. Here’s a recent letter from a loyalist:

“Thanks for your great products, but more important thanks for being cruelty free!! I try and do my small part by convincing friends, family and people I don’t even know to go cruelty free. I’ve always been an animal lover, having rescued seven cats from terrible situations. Keep up the … pledge to never, never, ever test your products on animals.”

So Tom’s looked a little higher on the evolutionary ladder. The company began putting out feelers in the dental community for scientists doing fluoride research on humans. They finally found Richard Corpron, professor of orthodontics and pediatric dentistry at the University of Michigan.

His solution: Take molars — or bits of molars — extracted from humans, fix them in plastic retainers that hold them snugly between cheek and gum, and have other human test subjects wear the devices.