Toothpaste Talk

People often ask me, “what type of toothpaste should I use?” Like many choices we have, this is a personal preference in the end but I will offer you some guidance with my 20-plus years as a practicing dentist in Clearwater, Florida. This guidance is for my adult patients and children over six years of age. For children under six years of age please consult us with their pediatric dentist. If a patient doesn’t like the taste and feel during and after brushing then we are in trouble already. I’d rather use any toothpaste than choosing not to brush at all. So, use this as guidance until you find a paste you like and will use it twice per day. (Like many of you, we will ignore flossing for now 😊)

I respect that any of my patients choose not to use fluoride toothpaste but I personally disagree with this choice. I consistently see increased decay rates in patients who choose to use non-fluoridated toothpaste. As a member of The American Dental Association, I stand behind the fact that all toothpaste must contain fluoride for them to earn ADA approval.

As we all have different preferences for flavors I will focus on the issue of the abrasiveness of toothpaste. Over the course of years of brushing a more abrasive toothpaste can lead to severe damage to the tooth structure. This damage accelerates when dentin is exposed which is the softer tooth structure under a tooth’s protective enamel.

Research is continually undertaken to determine the levels of abrasiveness as compositions of toothpaste change frequently. The chart below breaks down toothpaste into low abrasion (blue), medium abrasion (green), and highly abrasive (yellow and red). So, which one should you use? If you have any history of tooth decay or have numerous dental restorations I have recommended and supplied the prescription toothpaste Clinpro for years. Clinpro provides prescription levels of fluoride which is five times more than over-the-counter products. Clinpro also has the lowest abrasiveness of the prescription fluoride toothpaste.

For over-the-counter options, I would try to stay in the blue or green sections of the chart preferably with a fluoride component. All of these can keep your teeth clean if used with a proper brushing technique. Don’t count on these pastes to whiten your teeth as my opinion is this is marketing and will not actually do much whitening. We can help you with some whitening options of course, with the exception of one patient and friend whom I had to cut off from whitening as he showed whitening addiction.