Unless you are severely behind in your routine dental habits, there’s no question that there is at least one tube of toothpaste in your home right now. We won’t try to guess what brand or type it is, though—there are so many different varieties to choose from that the average grocery store or pharmacy has the better part of an aisle devoted to them! As you check out the many different toothpaste options available, it may occur to you to wonder exactly what toothpaste is made of, what it does, and which variety is the best choice for your family’s teeth. Fortunately, the answers are not too complicated.
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The Key Ingredient
Fluoride is the single most important ingredient in toothpaste, and you’ll find it in virtually every brand you pick up. That’s because fluoride is extremely effective in encouraging tooth enamel to grow stronger, which in turn stops bacteria from getting past the teeth and infecting the gums and dentin—the vulnerable material inside the teeth. The discovery of this fact revolutionized the way public officials thought about dental health, and you can still find fluoride deliberately added in low doses to municipal water supplies around the United States to help the population defend their oral health against cavities.
Fluoride is very powerful in defending against bacteria, but it can also harm your body in larger doses. That’s why it’s important not to swallow toothpaste and introduce more than a very small amount into your body. Regulators place strict limits on the concentration of fluoride that toothpaste products can have, and it’s best to have young children “practice” with a fluoride-free toothpaste until they can avoid swallowing it.
Scrubbing the Teeth
So if there’s only a very small concentration of fluoride in toothpaste, what’s all the other stuff that it’s made of? The vast majority of the makeup of a toothpaste (or gel) is a collection of very small mineral particles. When you move these particles across your teeth with your toothbrush, they scrape microscopic organic particles off the surface that have settled there during the day. The goal for toothpaste manufacturers is to use particles that are large and durable enough to scrape unwanted particles off the teeth, but small and gentle enough to avoid damaging the tooth enamel itself. The most popular of these “abrasives” are a combination of aluminum, carbon, calcium, and/or other minerals.
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Other Ingredients
As you can imagine, entrepreneurs in the dental care products industry have come up with all sorts of ideas for additional benefits that their toothpaste products can provide. The most common additional benefit today is whitening. While many people assume that whitening toothpaste uses special ingredients to bleach the teeth, in most cases it simply includes a different, more aggressive collection of abrasives, scraping and polishing the teeth more intensely than standard toothpaste products. These whitening toothpastes, while convenient, are a much weaker alternative to in-office or at-home whitening products that your dentist in Raleigh, NC can recommend for you.
Along with fluoride and abrasives, the toothpaste in your medicine cabinet probably also lists a lot of ingredients that you don’t recognize. As a product that needs to remain fresh and consistent over weeks and even months after being opened, most toothpaste products have a complicated set of preserving and moisturizing ingredients that prevent the other ingredients from reacting with the air and becoming dry, brittle, and powdery. That way each time you go to brush your teeth, all the ingredients work the way they are meant to, scrubbing particles off of your teeth and strengthening them to defend your oral health for another day!
Partner With Your Raleigh Dentist
Your Raleigh dentist can help you decide on the best type of toothpaste for your teeth, particularly if you have special needs like extra sensitive teeth. Our experts are here to answer all your questions about routine dental care and give your family’s teeth the periodic in-depth cleaning that they need to stay healthy. Make your appointment with New Hope Dental Care today through our website!