DETROIT -- A lawyer seeking fresh breath says he got brown stains instead.
Mark Rossman of suburban Detroit is suing Procter & Gamble Co., saying his teeth have stains on the edges after he used Crest Pro-Health mouthwash.
"My wife asked me, 'What's on your teeth?"' he said Thursday after his partners in Troy filed a lawsuit in federal court in Detroit. "I flossed, brushed - it wouldn't come off.
"I didn't even think of the mouthwash until I did some Internet research and saw complaints," Rossman, 34, said.
A P&G spokeswoman, Laura Brinker, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said "99.9 percent" of users have not complained.
"We stand behind our product," she said. "Tooth discoloration is a very complex matter and is influenced by many different things."
On a company Web page, Cincinnati-based P&G says it actually may be a sign the mouthwash is working.
"After the rinse kills germs in your mouth, the dead germs can collect on the teeth surface and create the appearance of a brown stain," the company says.
P&G says the stains are not harmful and could also be due to coffee, tea or red wine.
Rossman's lawsuit seeks class-action status. It accuses P&G of violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act by not putting a warning on the label.
Rossman believes P&G should be forced to pay his dental bills to get the stains removed.
"I have a pretty good toothbrush," he said. "Nothing seems to work."
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