You're at the supermarket…
You need to buy toothpaste…
But there are 30 different options on the shelf in front of you. You don't know which one to choose.
In fact, the first thing you need to check is very simple. Turn the box over… and see whether it contains FLUORIDE. Fluoride is the only ingredient that truly allows toothpaste to protect teeth against decay. The amount you should see in an adult toothpaste is around 1450 ppm fluoride. A toothpaste without fluoride… to be honest… is not much different from a foaming cream.
Without fluoride, toothpaste is just a nicely foaming, colorful cream, because the things we eat and drink during the day create acids in the mouth. These acids cause mineral loss from the tooth enamel, and the tooth practically starts to dissolve.
Fluoride helps the lost minerals bind back to the tooth surface and even makes the tooth more resistant to decay.
Of course, there are other ingredients thought to help reduce the risk of decay. Casein phosphopeptide, hydroxyapatite and xylitol are some of them. However, these ingredients do not have scientific evidence as strong as fluoride for preventing tooth decay.
We look at the ones labeled “natural”, “organic” or “vegan”… When we check the ingredients, we see the same things again: cleansers, foaming agents, sweeteners, humectants and preservatives. Only their sources are different. So being labeled natural does not mean it has no additives. In fact, if someone made a completely “100% natural” toothpaste… it wouldn't foam, wouldn't clean and wouldn't taste very good either. Nobody would use it.
As for whitening toothpastes: they polish your teeth and remove stains, but they don't actually whiten them. They contain surface abrasives, and if you use them every day for years, the enamel can thin and the yellow dentin underneath can become a little more visible. That is why we do not recommend the continuous use of whitening toothpastes.
